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THE CAREER 


STOLEN BOY, 


BY 43- 






Mrs. Caroline Oakley 

It 

AND 

Willie Fern. 

I 




CHARLIE. 




Qakland, Qal. 



''j ' " -.A'^ 


WILLIAM H. BRIGGS, Publisher. 


I 8 8 I. 



, 011 -^ 


I 


Entered according to Act of Congress, in the Office of the Librarian at 
Washington, D. C., by Wm. H. Bkiggs, Nov. 8, 1880. 


SKEES & STUART, PRINTERS, CHICAGO. 


DEDICATION 


TO MINNIE, THE WIFE OF OUR HERO, THIS 


BOOK IS 

RESPECTFULLY DEDICATED, 


BY ITS AUTHORS, 


MRS. CAROLINE OAKLEY 

AND 

WILLIE FERN. 




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PREFACE. 


The within adventures are drawn from real 
life, and the scenes and incidents described are 
pictured from the memories of its hero. We 
do not expect the reader will find our story 
perfect, but we hope it will prove interesting. 
If this result be obtained, our full desire wiU 
be gratified. 

With its facts and adventures, the Career 
OF THE Stolen Boy is respectfully offered to 
the reading world by its authors, 

MRS. CAROLINE OAKLEY 

AND 


WILLIE FERN. 


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CONTENTS 


CHAPTER 1. 

PAGE. 

“Charlie Ross 18 Gone,” - ... 9 

CHAPTER II. 

The Burton Family, - • - - 15 

CHAPTER III. 

The Lost Boy, - . - - - 22 

CHAPTER IV. 

Charlie and Weston with the Indians, . 36 

CHAPTER V. 

The Trapper’s Camp, - - - - - 49 

CHAPTER VI. 

The Emigrant Train— Death op Weston, - 69 

CHAPTER VII. 

Charlie Departs for the Land op Gold, - - 81 

CHAPTER VIII. 


In the Gold Mines, 


101 


Vlll 


CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER IX. 

Meeting op Mother and Son, 

CHAPTER X. 

The Alta? and the Tomb, 

CHAPTER XI. 

The Death of Old Leechvein, 

CHAPTER XII. 

Charlie’s Promise to his Mother, 

CHAPTER XIII. 


PAGE. 

121 


- 144 


160 


- 175 


The Promise Fulfilled, 


189 



THE 



CHAPTEE L 


“ I’ye seen the colors fading 
From all that I could prize, 

Like day’s departing glories 
From out the sunset skies. 

And full roughly I have ridden 
The stormy tide of life, 

And long years have passed in strugglin g 
In bitterness and strife.” 

— T. B, Thayer* 



EOSS IS GONE! Bome^ 
body has stolen Charlie Ross 
This was the exclamation of Willie 
Crawford as, with hoop and ball 
in hand, he rushed into his moth- 


er’s sitting-room from his play on the street, closely 
followed by Mrs. Eoss. 


“Oh, Mrs. Crawford! What shall I do? Some- 


10 THE CAREER OF THE STOLEN BOY, CHARLIE. 

body has carried off my Charlie! What shall 1 
do! What shall I dof'''' This Mrs. Ross said 
while wringing her hands and pacing the room in 
an excited manner. 

Mrs. Crawford and Mrs. Ross were near neigh- 
bors, and warm friends; although neither knew 
anything about the other, except what they had 
seen, since that day, six months ago, when Mrs. 
Ross, a widow with a blue-eyed boy of five years, 
had rented the cottage in the rear, and settled 
down as straw sewer for the firm of “ Braid and 
Shepard.” 

She was very ladylike in her manners and very 
reticent in regard to Her past life; and although 
her neighbors interviewed the boy, all they could 
learn from him was, that ‘‘his father was dead,” 
and that “ he had a big brother John who lived in 
Troy with Grandmama.” So they accepted Mrs. 
Ross as “one who had seen better days;” and 
the widow and her little boy soon became great 
favorites. 

When Mrs. Ross first sent her little boy to 
school, she had requested Willie Crawford to take 


THE CAREER OF THE STOJ.EN BOY, CHARLIE. 11 

him under his care ; and had sewed for both the- 
boys, hats of much finer quality than those worn 
by the other boys in the neighborhood. She also* 
possessed a large collection of books, well filled witli 
engravings, over which the boys had spent man3r 
happy hours. Charlie and Willie were very firm 
friends, and could almost always be found together. 

When Mrs. Crawford had succeeded in calming 
the distracted mother, she learned from her and 
Willie, that a well-dressed man, with a buggy, had 
offered to bring Charlie home from school, and 
after Charlie had got into the carriage, the man 
had said, “ It was such a pleasant day, he would 
drive around the square first.” Willie said, 

‘ ‘ Charlie seemed to know the man, and I thought 
it was all right, until Mrs. Koss asked me if I 
knew where he was.” 

Mrs. Eoss had been busy trying to finish her last 
dozen of hats, so that she might take them to the 
store after supper and obtain the money, to buy 
Charlie a pair of shoes, which she thought he 
needed, for she liked to have her little boy look as. 
well as any of his mates. 


12 THE CAREER OF THE STOLEN BOY, CHARLIE. 

Her tempting supper was waiting, and the last 
hat finished, when she noticed for the first time, 
the lateness of the hour. Charlie had often stop- 
ped to play with Willie Crawford on the street 
before the house, and there she now sought him, 
■only to learn of his abduction ; and then followed 
the scene with which our story opens. 

Mr. Crawford came home from his work in the 
rolling-mill, before any one had thought what was 
the best thing to be done. He at once notified the 
Chief of Police, who promised that all should be 
done that was possible, to restore the “Lost Boy 
■and sent one of the “force ” that evening to ques- 
tion Willie, and obtain a description of the man 
and his buggy. Mrs. Boss was also questioned, 
but she could not think of any one who could have 
any object in stealing her boy. 

The Crawfords took the affiicted mother into 
their own family, and did all they could to comfort 
ker. 

When a week had passed without bringing any 
tidings of the “Lost Charlie,” the whole city 
seemed to awake with sympathy, and the humble 


THE CAKEER OF THE STOLEN BOY, CHARLIE. 13^ 

home of the Crawfords was daily besieged with 
visitors, who came to offer comfort and aid to 
the bereaved mother. A skillful detective was 
employed, and posters offering a large reward 
for information concerning the “Stolen Boy,”" 
were to be seen on all the street corners of the 
city. 

The detective had several interviews with tho 
widow, and on one of these occasions, he drew 
from her the admission, that her true name was 
not Ross, but Burton; and that her married life 
had not been pleasant, and wishing her child to 
forget all about his father, she had called herself 
by an assumed name, and hid herself in a city, 
where no one knew anything about her. He .alse 
learned from her the fact, that her relatives were- 
wealthy, and pride had induced her to conceal her 
whereabouts and circumstances from them. By 
his advice, coupled with the hope that they might 
aid her in discovering her boy, she was induced te 
write to her friends and acquaint them with her 
situation. Her letters brought an immediate 
response, in the person of a wealthy aunt, wha 


14 THE CAEEER OF THE STOLEN BOY, CHARLIE. 

placed every means at work, that wealth could pro- 
cure, to find the “ missing Charlie.” 

Six months passed away, during which, several 
traces were discovered that seemed to promise 
well, but which only ended in disappointment. 
Once an answer came to the offer of reward, say- 
ing, that ‘‘if the money should be sent to a certain 
place the boy would be found there.” But al- 
though the money was sent by a suitable agent, no 
trace of the child appeared. 

The bereaved mother grew thin and pale ; the 
trouble and suspense was fast wearing out her life; 
and the doctors declared that unless she had a 
change of air, and something to take up her mind, 
she must soon die. It was at last decided to take 
her to San Francisco, where her brother, the 
wealthy Dr. Bossimere, had offered her a home. 
The voyage by sea, the changing scenery, and the 
new life which opened before her, restored her 
health, and as the years flew by, she became 
widely known, as the friend of the poor, and com- 
forter of the distressed. 



CHAPTER II. 



“Look not thou upon the wine when it is red, when it giveth his colour 
n the cup, when it moveth itself aright. 

“At the last it biteth like a serpent, and stingeth like an adder,” 

— Prov. 23: 31, 32. 


EAR Reader, turn back with us about 
four years, and visit a city on the 
eastern coast of Massachusetts, where 
we will look upon a bright picture of 
thirty years ago. 

The time is a winter evening in the year 1849. 
The glowing fire in the open grate throws a cheer- 
ful light around the cosy sitting room, and brings 
out in bold relief the marine view ” on the wall ; 
the work of an artist now famous for his Fruit 
Pieces. 

On the mantle-piece above the grate, a vase of 
red and white chrysanthemums adds to the cheer- 
fulness of the room, and gratifies the taste of its 
lovely mistress, who sits in a low rocker beside the 


16 THE CAEEEE OF THE STOLEN BOY, CHAELIE. 

fire, tenderly caressing her fair-haired, blue-eyed 
baby, Charlie Kossiinere Burton, the hero of our 
story, and the pet and idol of both Father and 
Mother. 

A centre-table is drawn up near the fire, and cov- 
ered with a red and black cloth, which, together 
with the bright-hued English carpet on the floor, 
gives to the room an air of comfort and even 
elegance, not often found in the home of a ‘ ‘ Me- 
chanic,” thirty years ago. An astral lamj) on the 
centre-table is burning brightly, and by its light 
Maurice Burton, in his easy chair, looks over the 
evening paper, pausing now and then to read aloud 
some interesting paragraph to his blue-eyed wife. 

A brown-eyed, sun-browned lad of thirteen sum- 
mers completes the family circle, and occupies the 
centre of the group, that he may the more readily 
attend the popping, bursting grains of corn, which 
he has been shaking over the fire, and now rises to 
pour into a white bowl, waiting to receive it, and 
then presents it to his aunt and uncle ; for he is a 
foster-son of the Burton home ; the orphan child 
of Mr. Burton’s eldest brother. 


THE CAREER OF THE STOLEN BOY, CHARLIE. 17 

The rosy-cheeked baby has been snugly tucked 
in his little crib, the papers read and the pop-corn 
discussed ; John Burton, the foster-son, had rubbed 
his sleepy eyes, and candle in hand, mounted the 
stairs to the chamber above ; Mary Burton, the 
fair-haired wife, has mended the last garment in 
her work basket and carefully put away her thread, 
thimble and needles; when Maurice rises with a 
yawn, and going to the corner cupboard, he pro- 
duces a decanter and glass, with the remark, “I 
believe that pop-corn has made me thirsty.” He 
places the half filled glass to his lips and drains it, 
saying, “That is splendid ‘Cherry,’ Wife! I be- 
lieve you improve every year on your wines and 
fancy rums.” Ah! you see the serpent coiled 
amid the flowers of this Eden home. 

Maurice Burton was one of Nature’s noblemen. 
He possessed manly beauty, bright intellect, vig- 
orous health, and a kind heart. He was known 
among his neighbors as a model husband, and 
would have indignantly denied the idea that he 
could ever become a drunkard. And his wife (it 
was the custom thirty years ago) put up the cur- 


18 THE CAREEfe OF THE STOLEN BOY, CHARLIE. 

rant, elderberry, and blackberry wines, and pre- 
pared boxberry rum and cherry rum, without a 
thought that she was spreading a snare for her 
husband and furnishing the means to wreck her 
whole life. 

Three years have passed away, bringing many 
sad changes ; and the happy home life of the Bur- 
tons has become a thing of the past. In a small 
tenement containing two rooms, neatly, but plainly 
furnished, we find Mary Burton and her Charlie, 
now a bright-eyed boy of four summers. 

The serpent which she nursed in her home has 
grown to a ‘‘hydra-headed” monster, destroying 
her happiness, and nearly crushing out her own 
life. Yes, Maurice Burton, the. man she had once 
so proudly called “my husband,” is now a lost, 
degraded drunkard, working only to gratify his in- 
sane thirst for the maddening drink, finding a shel- 
ter where he may. 

Slowly and imperceptibly, the dreadful appetite 
had been formed, and neither husband or wife was 
aware of the danger until too late to crush it. 


THE CAREER OF THE STOLEN BOY, CHARLIE. 19 

When the dreadful fact became apparent to Mary 
Burton that her husband was really a drunkard, 
she was at first angry at the disgrace, and by her 
coldness and angry words, drove him more and 
more from his home, until at last he was discharged 
from work, and the whole burden of the family fell 
upon the delicate woman all unused to such a posi- 
tion. Naturally proud-spirited, she felt the dis- 
grace of her situation keenly ; her disposition that 
had been sunny, grew sour ; and the home which 
had been so happy, soon became one of entire 
misery, to all but the child too young to know its 
bitterness. 

At last the disappointed and despairing wife 
sued for, and obtained a divorce, the Judge giving 
her the custody of the boy. 

The divided home no longer furnished a pleasant 
abiding-place for the ‘‘foster-son,” John Burton, 
and he found a home with his father’s sister ; which 
was also the home of Maurice Burton’s mother; 
and they, the mother and sister, sympathized with 
the ruined husband, and were inclined to blame 


20 THE CAREER OF THE STOLEN BOY, CHARLIE. 

the divorced wife for not clinging to her husband 
in his degraded condition. This home furnished 
shelter to Maurice Burton, when at rare intervals 
he was sober ; and sometimes he would stagger to 
this refuge, when the shops which furnished him 
poison, and sometimes food in return for labor per- 
formed, could use him no longer. 

At such times, when the madness had passed 
awaj, the mother and sister would plead with him 
to mend his ways, and he would promise to re- 
form ; and sometimes kept the promise nearly three 
months ; but the appetite that had been so long in- 
dulged would always gain the victory. 

It was on one of these occasions, that Maurice 
Burton left his sister’s home, to search for em- 
ployment. He had kept sober for two months, 
and that morning in response to the earnest counsel 
of his mother and sister, had promised that he 
would never touch another drop. He had an- 
nounced his intention of seeking work among the 
neighboring farmers, promising his sister that when 
he obtained work, he would send her word. 

His mother was very sure that he would keep 


THE CAREER OF THE STOLEN BOY, CHARLIE. 21 

liis promise to reform this time. It could never 
be that her boy would die a drunkard. 

“ His father, ‘ the Doctor,’ was such a nice man ; 
and then Maurice was always such a nice, smart 
boy. If he had only had a different wife, he would 
have made a better man.” 

When a week had passed, without hearing from 
him, his mother and sister began to grow uneasy. 
Inquiries only traced him to the village, where he 
had purchased some bread and cheese, and left, say- 
ing he was going into the country to obtain work. 

A week later a body was washed ashore near 
the village tavern, and claimed and buried by his 
mother and sister, as the last* remains of Maurice 
Burton. 

# 

Mary Burton did not attend the funeral, nor let 
her boy do so. “I do not wish him to remember 
the father who has disgraced him,” she said to J ohn 
Burton, when he asked her to let him take Charlie. 

Soon after the funeral, Mary Burton removed to 
the city in which we find her at the opening of our 
story, and assumed the name of Boss, which was 
part of her maiden name. 



CHAPTEE III. 


“I fain would tell, but mothers know 
What joy, and love, and bliss. 

Lies in a darling’s dimpled arms, 

And in a baby’s kiss. 

And what a world of grief and woe 
Lies in an empty crib. 

With little garments hung away. 

And trinkets locked and hid. 

For Oh! my boy is lost, is lost.” 

— Mbs. C. a. Phillips. 

JT what of the lost Charlie f When 
Maurice Burton left his sister’s home 
to look for employment, he firmly 
resolved to he a better man ; and as 
he walked along the highway, to- 
wards the farming districts, he kept turning this 
resolution over in his mind, and began to dream of 
a future in which he saw himself once more a re- 
spected member of society. And as this pleasant 
vision passed before his mind’s eye, everything 
in nature seemed to harmonize with it. The birds 
sang their sweetest songs ; and the summer air 



THE CAREER OF THE STOLEN BOY, CHARLIE. 23 

seemed laden with the perfume of sweet-brier and 
clover, bringing memories of his boyhood days, 
when his mother used to be so proud of him. 

He rested at the village tavern, and found 
strength to refuse “the treat of a glass of gin,” 
which the bartender urged upon him. 

When again on the road, the thought occurred 
to him, “ If I obtain work with any of the farmers 
of W , I am so well known that I shall be con- 

stantly asked to drink, and then” — . He had 
reached a point^where two roads met, and as he 
paused, there came to him this resolve, “I will 
strike out for a place where I am not known ; and 
if I cannot make a man of myself, I will not let 
the folks at home know what has become of me ; 
for I’m nothing but a burthen and disgrace to them 
anyway.” 

With this decision in his mind, he turned his 
back on the familiar road, and hurried away in an 
opposite direction, as though fleeing from some 
phantom which pursued him. 

He never knew how many miles he traveled that 
day ; his mind was conscious of only one idea, that 


24 THE CAREER OF THE STOLEN BOY, CHARLIE. 

was, to place as great a distance as possible be- 
tween himself and his former associates. 

, When the golden sun was sinking behind the 
western hills, and the long summer day was draw- 
ing to its close, he found himself before the gate 
at a large farmhouse : this he entered, and passing 
to the rear of the house, asked for shelter and 
food from the man who answered his knock at the 
kitchen door. 

‘ ‘ Who are you anyway ? And where are you 
frord 

“My name is Worth; I belong in Dartmouth.” 
Which was a part of the tru-th, for Maurice Worth 
Burton had been born in Dartmouth, and so had 
his father before him. “ I am looking for work; 
do you want to hire a man ? ” 

“What could you do? If you know anything 
about hay, I would like to hire you, for I am terri- 
bly short-handed in that line.” 

“I can mow, rake, or pitch; have spent all of 
my early life on a farm; and I could shoe your 
. horse, or new tire your wheels, if you could fur- 
nish the proper tools.” 


THE CAREER OF THE STOLEN BOY, CHARLIE. 25 

“ Well, you’re just the man I want. Come in. 
Stranger, and if you can work half as well as you 
can talk, I will find you plenty to do in the morn- 
ing.” 

Maurice was furnished with a good supper, and 
comfortable bed ; he awoke quite refreshed, and 
before nightfall, he had convinced his employer 
that he was just the man he wanted^ and was en- 
gaged at liberal wages for the rest of the season. 

The first tv o weeks, he found himself too tired 
each night to write to his mother and sister ; and 
then an event occurred which prevented their ever 
meeting again in this world. 

The popular paper of the county came every 
week to the farmhouse ; and Mr. Forrest (that was 
the farmer’s name) usually read the news aloud, 
wliile his wife darned the stockings, the boys ate 
apples, and the farm hands dozed in their chairs, 
or stretched at full length on the kitchen floor. 

The paper had been brought from the mail on 
Thursday evening of the second week since Mau- 
rice’s appearance at the farmhouse, and the read- 
ing was progressing as usual ; Maurice was seated 


26 THE CAREER OF THE STOLEN BOY, CHARLIE. 

with his legs astride a flag-bottom chair, his arms 
resting on the back, and his head resting on his 
hands ; not listening to the reading, but trying to 
determine how to shape his future life. Suddenly 
a name arrested his attention, and caused him to 
listen intently to the end of the paragraph. 

“ FOUND DROWNED. 

“ Monday morning a body was washed ashore near Union 
Tavern, on the Troy turnpike, and was identified by the clothes 
as the last remains of Maurice Burton, who disappeared from 
his home about a week ago. Burton was a drinking man, and 
was last seen near the tavern. It is supposed that he must 
have fallen into the river while drunk. The body was claimed 
and buried by his sister, Mrs. Vincent, of Troy.” 

The paragraph was flnished, and commented 
upon by different members of the family, and the 
reader passed on to other subjects. 

The current of Maurice’s thoughts was changed. 
If he was already dead to his friends, then he 
would never undeceive them, until he could go 
back a man they would be proud to know. The 
‘‘California gold fever” was at its height. Why 
not go to the “gold diggings?” He had good 
abilities, and could easily work his way there. 

Then came the thought of his boy ; down deep 


THE CAREER OF THE STOTEN BOY, CHARLIE. 2T 

in this man’s heart was a tender love for the child 
who had once been his idol ; and the bitterest hour 
of his life had been when the divorce obtained bj 
his wife, had taken from him his little Charlie. 

When under the influence of liquor, he had 
never been abusive to the child ; and after the di- 
vorce, he had often sought the little boy at his play 
in the backyard, and given him cakes or candy. 
In his mind now, there was a vivid picture of the 
little boy as he had seen him about two months, 
before ; the little curly head leaning far over the 
well curb, looking vainly for the hat he had lost in 
the depths below. His father had Ashed out the 
lost hat, and sent him to his mother with it ; and 
this was the last time they had met. 

If I only had the boy to take with me.” 

‘‘Are you asleep, Maurice ? ” It was Tim Jones^ 
his room-mate. Mr. Forrest had finished reading, 
and was locking up for the night ; this was a well 
understood signal for all hands to go to bed. Mau- 
rice went to his room and to bed, but not to sleep ; 
and when the morning dawned, his plans for the 
future were all formed. 


28 THE CAREER OF THE STOLEN BOY, CHARLIE. 

When the farming season closed, Maurice had 
quite a sum of money in his pocket. Mr. Forrest 
would have kept him through the winter, for he 
was an excellent blacksmith, and there was a forge 
on the farm ; but he declined to remain, saying he 
was anxious to return to his friends. 

He had changed very much in appearance since 
he left his sister’s home. The sun had browned his 
usually pale cheek, and he had allowed his beard and 
mustache to grow, so his mother believing him 
“dead, would not have recognized him on the street. 

The thriving city of B was only four miles 

-distant from Mr. Forrest’s farm ; and thither Mau- 
rice bent his footsteps on leaving the farmhouse. 
So many men had left their homes for the “ Land 
of Gold,” that he found no difficulty in obtaining 
u chance to work his passage on the steamboat ply- 
ing between B and Troy ; and one of the deck 

hands falling sick, he was asked to take his place. 
Finding that the boat would remain over night in 
Troy, he immediately accepted the situation ; and 
found that he had plenty of time to reconnoitre the 
scenes of his former life. 


THE CAREER OF THE STOLEN BOY, CHARLIE. 2^ 

He soon learned that his wife and son had left 
the city, and that their whereabouts was unknown ; 
but his knowledge of her character pointed out to 
him the place in which she would be the most 
likely to take refuge. Wlien his job on the boat 
was finished, he sought and obtained work as a 
blacksmith in the city of P . 

When the maples were putting forth their leaves, 
Maurice Burton’s plans had reached maturity. He 
had nursed the idea that he had as good a right to 
his boy as the child’s mother had, until any means 
of obtaining him seemed right to his mind. He 
gave no thought to the anguish his loss would 
cause him, but dwelt only on the pleasure of hav- 
ing him constantly by his side, and teaching him 
to love him alone. 

’He had kept the last promise he ever made his 
mother faithfully ; and had hoarded every cent of 
his wages, not necessary for food or clothes, with 
a miser’s care ; some of the time he had worked 
over hours enough to pay his board bill. 

He gave his notice at the shop, saying that he 
was intending to start for California ; and some of 


so THE CAREER OF THE STOLEN BOY, CHARLIE. 

liis shop-mates even saw him aboard of the cars 
that connected with the “ Sound Steamers,” and 
bade him good-bye, wishing him good luck. But 
none of them knew that he left the train at the 
first station, and took a room at a third-class hotel, 
where, with the aid of a pair of scissors and razor, 
he altered his appearance very much. Over-work 
had paled his sun-browned face ; and when the 
barber had cut and combed his hair to suit him, he 
looked very much like the Maurice Burton of 
other days. 

Pie paid his bill at the hotel, and hired a horse 
and buggy at a stable to take him back to the city. 
We have seen that he found no difficulty in induc- 
ing Charlie to ride home from school with him. 
The little boy had never seen a dead person, and 
never been to a funeral ; and when he had been 
told that his father was dead, it conveyed no other 
impression to his mind than that he had gone 
away somewhere ; so it did not seem at all strange 
to have the man who had given him candy and 
cakes the year before offer to bring him home 
from school. 


THE CAREER OF THE STOLEN BOY, CHARLIE. 31 

The proposed ride around the square furnished 
a plea for driving out on the country road ; and 
apples, candy, and talk about John and Grandma 
made the ride seem short ; and the glasses of soda 
which Maurice purchased at a druggist’s for him- 
self and Charlie furnished the means of drugging 
the child, so that slumber closed his eyes before 
he had time to think of the mother, who was wait- 
ing for his coming. 

Maurice reached the town where he had hired 
the carriage, left it at the stable, and wrapping the 
sleeping child in the blanket shawl which he had 
bought for that purpose, hurried on board the last 
train, just as it was leaving the depot. He had no 
baggage to bother him, for he had never kept any 
supply on hand, except an extra shirt; this he 
now had folded under his close buttoned coat. 

When the stolen child awoke from his enforced 
slumber, he was lying in the berth of one of the 
staterooms of the Empire State, which made 
nightly trips through Long Island Sound. As 
soon as he realized his surroundings, he began to 
cry for ‘‘mama,” and it was a long time before 


32 THE CAREER OF THE STOLEN BOY, CHARLIE. 

his father could pacify him. The terrible fit of 
sea-sickness which soon came over the boy, helped 
the abductor’s plans very much, for it confined 
him to the stateroom, and kept him so weak that 
he did not know when the boat reached the wharf. 
Maurice found himself obliged to remain three 
days at the third class hotel at which he stopped, 
before Charlie was able to travel again. 

The next week, when everybody was talking 
about ‘‘ the missing Charlie,” no one who remem- 
bered the poor. Westward bound emigrant and his 
sick boy, thought of connecting him with the ab- 
duction of the missing child. 

With his mind dulled by recent illness, Maurice 
found no difficulty in convincing Charlie that his 
mother was dead ; and as he bestowed upon him 
the most tender care, he soon won him to love him 
as fondly as he could wish. 

We have seen that the story of the “kidnapped 
boy ” had been sent everywhere, with a descrip- 
tion of his person, the color of hi^ eyes and hair, 
and every particular that seemed necessary to lead 
to his recovery. The news-boys cried their papers 


THE CAEEER OF THE STOLEN BOY, CHARLIE. 33 

with all about the “ Stolen Boy” in the very cars 
where Maurice traveled ; but no one hearing the 
sound, suspected that the light-haired boy, sleep- 
ing so sweetly in his father’s arms, was the “Kid- 
napped Charlie ” of whom a whole city was at that 
moment thinking — conjecturing various theories 
for the cause of his abduction, but never guessing 
the truth. And his mother wetting her pillow 
with tears, and in her sleepless agony picturing 
her ‘ ‘ lost boy ’ ’ in all manner of painful situa- 
tions ; but never for a moment thinking of him as 
sleeping in the arms of love. 

Two weeks after the abduction found Maurice 
and his child at the terminus of railway travel in 
the Northwest ; and after three days by stage, he 
left the main road, to seek the abode of a man of 
whom he had heard in one of the stages by which 
he had traveled. It was told that this man, who 
was known as the “ Squatter,” lived all alone in a 
little cabin in the wilderness ; and Maurice, finding 
his money nearly all gone, and himself and Char- 
lie very much in need of rest, had resolved to ask 
this “lone hermit ” for shelter for a few days. 


34 : THE CAKEEE OF THE STOLEN BOY. CHAELIE. > 

He found the cabin after nearly a day’s journey 
on foot, during which he carried Charlie a great 
part of the way in his arms or on his shoulders. 

The hermit, whose name was Arthur Weston, 
gave the tired man permission to remain with him 
for a few days ; and Maurice and his little boy re- 
tired early to the bed of dried grass, which was 
the best his host had to offer. 

After his night’s rest he found himself too sick 
to leave his bed. He had told Weston the night 
before that his wife was dead, and that he intended 
to travel on, with his little boy, until he reached 
the “Land of Gold.” With rest after the tire- 
some journey, came reaction and lassitude ; from 
the loss of his whiskers a severe cold had been 
taken ; this had been neglected, until a hacking 
cough had set in; congestion of the lungs fol- 
lowed; and for two weeks Maurice was unable to 
help himself in the least. But Weston, althougli 
a very rough and lawless man, cared for him as 
tenderly as a woman might ; and quite won the 
heart of the blue-eyed Charlie, by the flowers and 
berries that he brought for his amusement ; for the 


THE OAEEEE OF THE STOLEN BOY, CHAELIE. 35 

child very rarely left the bedside of his father, ex- 
cept to eat his meals. 

When the bright days of June appeared, Mau- 
rice was able to walk out a little, but his strength 
never came back. The hacking cough continued, 
and when September winds began to whistle around 
the cabin, a grave was dug under the big “ cotton- 
wood,” and there Arthur Weston buried the bro- 
ken-hearted man whose early promise of a noble 
life had been quenched by “ the harmless glass of 
home-made wine. ’ ’ 

“ As righteousness tendeth to life: so he that pursueth evil 
pursueth it to his own death.” — P rov. 11 : 19 . 




CHAPTER lY. 


“ And oft though wisdom wake, suspicion sleeps 

At wisdom’s gate, and to simplicity 

Resigns her charge, while goodness thinks no ill 

Where no ill seems.” — Milton. 



^TIRING the last illness of Maurice 
Burton, Arthur Weston had given 
him all the care and comfort that 
was in his power to bestow, and 
the dying man had confided to him 
the whole sad story of his wrecked life, and en- 
treated him to restore the “Stolen Boy” to his 
mother, if it should ever be possible. This Weston 
readily promised to do, but mentally resolved that 
it should .never be possible*; for although Maurice 
had confided in him without reserve, he knew 
nothing about him except that he had been kind to 
him in his great extremity — yet these two men 
had met before. 


THE CAREER OF THE STOLEN BOY, CHARLIE. 37 

Ten years before the opening of our story, the 
pretty Mary Rossimere had many suitors ; for a 
long time her preference seemed to be equally di- 
vided between two ; for her family preferred the 
son of the wholesale liquor dealer; and her heart 
chose Maurice Burton, the machinist. She at last 
decided the question by accepting Maurice Burton ; 
and from that time very little notice was taken of 
lier, by her family, until the abduction of her boy 
led her to appeal to them for help, which brought 
out their ready sympathy in her behalf. 

Meanwhile her discarded suitor, who had always 
been known as a fast young man, grew more wild 
and reckless in his habits. The failure of his 
father in business, forced him to rely on his own 
labor for support. He had never been taught to 
work, and he now thought himself too old to learn 
a trade ; and his past habits made him unable to 
obtain a clerkship ; so the' only place that seemed 
open to him was behind a bar. Here he sunk rap- 
idly, and one year before our story opens, he fled 
from justice, carrying with him the proceeds of a 
successful burglary. 


58 THE CAREER OF THE STOLEN BOY, CHARLIE. 

He had found no place safe from the “eye of the 
law,” except the wilds of frontier life; here he 
found a “squatter” anxious to sell his cabin and 
stock at a low figure, that he might emigrate far- 
ther west. He had made the purchase, and since 
then dwelt in security, as far as the law was con- 
cerned, but leading a very lonely life. 

The coming of Maurice and little Charlie to his 
home, had been a pleasant break in its monotony ; 
and when the poor man grew confidential, the story 
that he told filled the heart of his listener with 
pleasure. The woman who had discarded him for 
another, had not found happiness with the husband 
of her choice; and now it was in his power to 
withhold her dearest earthly treasure. The joy he 
felt at this thought, may have added to the tender- 
ness with which he nursed the dying man, for he 
had been the means of placing this revenge in his 
way. 

Charlie felt the loss of his father bitterly, and 
every day he would beg to be taken to “ Mama ; ” 
but his new guardian put him oif with the plea, 
that he could not go until after the harvest. And 


THE CAREER OF THE STOLEN BOY, CHARLIE. 39 

as he really tried to make the little cabin as pleas- 
ant as possible to the fatherless boy, the little fel- 
low soon ceased to plead “to go to Mama,” wait- 
ing with heroic patience for the harvest to end. 
And while Charlie was patiently waiting for the 
end of the harvest, his heart-broken mother and 
her friends were asking each other what should be 
done next ; every means had been tried, but not a 
single clue had led to anything but disappoint- 
ment. 

We might drop a fish into the ocean, and the 
most diligent search might fail to find it again ; 
so although it was well known that Charlie went 
away with a man in a buggy, all further trace of 
him seemed as effectually lost, as though the earth 
opened and swallowed him up. 

Those readers of these pages, who have traveled 
over thinly settled districts, and through new and 
wild country, can easily judge how little prospect 
there was of Charlie ever being restored to his 
mother, except his guardian should so will it. 

When the produce was all gathered, and Weston 
began to get ready for “market,” Charlie was 


40 THE CAKEER OF THE STOLEN BOY, CHARLIE. 

nearly wild with delight, and could scarcely wait 
for the morning of the day on which they were to 
start. The load was to be carried in a lumber 
wagon, drawn by two yoke of oxen; and a “nest” 
was made for the little boy in one corner, and fur- 
nished with a buffalo robe and a blanket. 

The first day passed very pleasantly to the eager 
child. The late autumn fiowers, the singing birds, 
and squirrels which he sometimes left the team to 
chase, all ministered to the pleasure of his ride. 
His heart was light for he thought he was going 
home. He had traveled so fast away from his 
home, that he did not realize that it would take 
weeks to get back again. 

The second day was more monotonous ; he 
seemed to have lost his interest in the squirrels, 
and remained all day curled up in his buffalo robe. 
The third morning he awoke flushed and unre- 
freshed ; and it soon became evident to Weston, 
that the child was sick, and that he would have to 
leave him at an Indian village, which was about 
four miles from the “trading post;” and with 
whose inhabitants he was somewhat acquainted. 


THE CAREER OF THE STOLEN BOY, CHARLIE. 41 

He had been able to render some assistance to the 
tribe, and they seemed very friendly towards him. 
And they readily consented to take care of the 
boy, while he finished his journey. 

Charlie was very unwilling to be left behind, but 
when Weston told him that “he would surely die, 
and never see his mother, if he did not remain,” 
he yielded at once. One of the Indian women 
took the boy under especial care, and by her skill- 
ful nursing succeeded in breaking up the fever with 
which he seemed to be threatened. 

It took Weston two days to transact his busi- 
ness at the “trading post,” and it was not until 
the evening of the third, that he reached the 
Indian village, where they urged him to remain all 
night. He had brought them liberal gifts of am- 
munition and tobacco, and could tell them consid- 
erable news from the outside world. To Charlie 
he brought the intelligence that he had written to 
his mother; and he promised to ride over on the 
“ pony” in a week to get his answer. 

When the Indians found that their visitor 
intended to return in a week, they offered to keep 


42 THE CAREER OF THE STOLEN BOY, CHARLIE. 

the child, who was really unfit to travel; and 
Charlie, feeling that he was so much nearer home, 
begged to remain. On finding that the child had 
not told anything about himself, and obtaining 
from him a promise that he would say nothing 
about his past life, he concluded to leave him. 

In four days he was back again, with his ox team 
and supplies; stating, that “he had found his 
cabin a smoking ruin ; and that his pony and all 
his farming tools had disappeared.” The place 
had probably been plundered and burned by some 
roving band of Indians. The friendly Indians 
made room for him in one of their wigwams ; and 
he gave them the load of supplies he had brought 
for his own use. 

Charlie soon regained his strength ; and his 
Indian nurse made for him a suit of buckskin, as a 
token of her love, which pleased the child very 
much ; for his clothes were becoming very thin 
and worn. 

After four days Weston again departed for the 
“trading post,” telling Charlie he would bring 
him news from his mother, before the sun set. 


THE CAREER OF THE STOLEN HOY, CHARLIE. 

Just at nightfall, he returned to the village in great 
haste, and informed his friends, the Indians, that 
he had received news that would compel him to go 
‘‘West” at once. He had purchased a hght 
wagon at his first visit to the “ trading post,” and 
obtaining a horse from the Indians in exchange for 
his oxen, he and Charlie left the same evening 
after his hastj return. 

The setting sun had le'ft only the gray twilight 
to mark its last ray, and the moon like a ball of 
fire appeared in the eastern sky, when they started 
on their all night journey. The air was mild, for 
although December had come. Winter seemed loth 
to put in an appearance ; and the moon glistening 
through the groves of timber, reflected a landscape 
impossible to represent with pen or pencil. Leaves 
tinted with shades that art cannot produce, and 
varnished with dew, glistened on every side, and 
seemed to the child’s imagination to be a scene in 
fairy land. 

The boy had been very much disappointed at 
not hearing from “Mama,” but he made no oppo- 
sition to going with Weston, and as the horse flew 


44 THE CAREER OF THE STOLEN BOY, CHARLIE. 

over the lonely road, lie evinced considerable inter- 
est in the constellations, which the man took pains 
to point out to him. In a short time the child fell 
u<sleep; and cradled in his guardian’s arms, passed 
the night on the road. 

While Arthur Weston was at the “trading 
post,” disposing of his farm produce, he chanced 
upon an old paper in which he read the offer of 
the large reward for the “missing Charlie.” He 
knew, he had only to deliver up the boy and claim 
the reward ; but then the officers of the law might 
want him also ; and he did not like to part with 
the hoy ; he had grown fond of him, and he did 
not wish to restore him to the mother, whom he 
fancied had wronged him. He had grown tired of 
farming ; with the promised reward, he might go 
to some western city and begin life anew. The 
result of his reasoning was, the letter which awoke 
hope in the heart of Mary Burton, only to end in 
the bitterest disappointment. 

When he had found his cabin burned, the loss 
of it did not distress him much, for he had deter- 
mined to claim the reward; and “if he could not 


THE CAREER OF THE STOLEN BOY, CHARLIE. 45 

sell his ‘tract,’ lie would give it to liis Indian 
friends.” 

When he arrived at the “trading post” to look 
for an answer to his letter, he gave his horse to- 
the stable-boy, at the only tavern the place 
afforded, and was proceeding towards the post 
office, when the sound of a name uttered by a 
familiar voice attracted his attention. Two men 
were seated under a shed that he was passing, con- 
versing in low tones, and their subject was the 
“missing Charlie.” It was this name which had 
arrested his attention, and the familiar voice was 
that of an old schoolmate, that had once been his 
warm friend ; but now a wide chasm yawned be- 
tween them — Weston was a fugitive from justice 
— his schoolmate, a well-known detective from 
the “ States.” Weston forgot that frontier life had 
changed his looks so much that his own mother 
would not have known him; or that the half Indian 
suit he wore might have formed a sufficient dis- 
guise. Here was danger for him, he thought, and 
hurrying back to the stable, he paid the boy for his 
horse’s dinner, and rode away at a rapid gait, 


46 THE CAEEEK OF THE STOLEN BOY, CHAKLIE. 

never pausing to look behind, nor checking the 
speed of his horse until he reached the Indian vil- 
lage, where we have seen he only tarried long 
enough to procure a fresh horse, and equip Char- 
lie. and himself for their night ride, before he 
started again in his flight. 

Their travels led them over mountains covered 
with tall trees, through forests fllled with all kinds 
of game, and along the banks of streams of pure, 
clear water, from which, with hook and line, they 
often obtained their supper or breakfast. 

We are apt to And our minds well occupied 
when visiting new scenes, 'and traveling over new 
and wild country; so Charlie soon became inter- 
ested in the journey, and ceased to wonder when 
they would start for the ‘‘East.” 

They continued this mode of life for two weeks, 
sometimes finding shelter in a deserted hunter’s 
cabin, tarrying one night with a wandering band 
of Gypsies, and resting at last at an Indian village, 
where he procured a “guide” to show him the 
most direct route to some frontier settlement. 

The only object of this wild flight was to baffle 


THE CAKEEK OF THE STOLEN BOY, CHAELIE. 47 

all search that might be made for him — a search 
that never was made — so truly, ‘‘The wicked flee 
when no man pursueth.” 

Their guid^ led them over a more public road, 
sometimes passing the cabin of some hardy set- 
tler, occasionally meeting bands of roving Indians, 
who sufiered them to pass unmolested, for their 
guide was well-known, and his presence protected 
them. The further they traveled, the more savage 
they found the tribes, whose villages they passed ; 
but Weston made the Chief of each a present of 
some trinket, which won his friendship. At one 
time, a curiously wrought powder flask, answered 
this purpose ; at another, a money belt, which once 
contained a “thousand in gold;” and the third 
and last, was a small magnifying glass, which he 
had given to Charlie to amuse himself with, and 
which the child gave up, in return for their night’s 
lodging at one Indian village. 

The child seemed to win the love of all he met ; 
and their guide grew fond of him, and taught him 
to use the bow and arrow, with which he soon 
became quite expert. 


48 THE CAEEER OF THE STOLEN BOY, CHARLIE. 


They now approached the banks of a river which 
they would have to descend to continue their jour- 
ney, and here they parted from their Indian guide, 
who left them to return to his people, carrying with 
him one of Charlie’s golden curls. 




CHAPTEE Y. 


“ Nearer and ever nearer, among the numberless islands, 

Darted a light, swift boat, that sped away o’er the water, 

Urged on its course by the sinewy arms of hunters and trappers.” 

— Longfellow’s ” Evangeline.” 



HAELIE and Weston did not have 
long to wait at the “Indian agen- 
cy,” where they had parted with 
their guide, before the welcome 
sound of oars, told them that a 
boat was approaching. They had found no diffi- 
culty in disposing of the horse and carriage; and 
this gave them something to pay their traveling 


expenses with. 

Weston had taught the child to call him ‘ ‘ uncle, ’ ’ 
and by this name we shall henceforth know him. 

It was necessary that Charlie and his uncle 
should seek a home for the winter without delay ; 


50 THE CAREER OF THE STOLEN BOY, CHARLIE. 

and among the “ trappers” gathered at the agency, 
they found one who was quite willing to pilot them 
to a selected spot long known to him. 

A store of provisions, ammunition, guns, traps, 
etc., was packed in the canoe — for a hunter and 
trapper always prepares for a six months’ stay — and 
our three travelers embarked on their journey. It 
was nearly noon when they started from the 
agency ; and the river glistened in the sunlight like 
a broad stream of silver; and as the canoe glides 
smoothly over the water, there seems nothing to 
mar the pleasure of their voyage. 

Charlie amused himself for awhile with fishing, 
and watching the changing scenery as they glided 
by it ; but when there was nothing but the river 
and the dull drab prairie to look upon, he became 
weary, and curling up on the pile of blankets, fell 
asleep. 

The “trapper,” being familiar with the stream, 
related anecdotes and adventures of his experience 
in former years, until Weston became deeply inter- 
ested, and quite a friendship seemed to be estab- 
lished between the two men. Weston grew confi- 


THE CAEEEE OF THE STOLEN BOY, CHAELIE. 51 

dential, and told the trapper of the burning of his 
cabin, adding that his sister, the boy’s mother, had 
perished in the flames; and he had rescued the 
child from the murderous Indians, and escaped 
with him. This story the trapper was easily made 
to believe; and seeing Charlie dressed in a fine 
made buckskin suit, with beaded moccasins and 
feathered cap, and the bow and arrows which he 
used so expertly, all helped to make the story 
seem real. “They came from Tall Bull’s Band,” 
thought he ; and his sympathy was gained, which 
was all that Weston wished. 

The trapper had planned for a winter’s hunt, 
and he had invited Charlie’s uncle to share it with 
him, an ofier which he readily accepted. 

Our travelers did not find smooth sailing all of the 
time, and when the roughness of the journey awoke 
Charlie, he turned to fishing again for amusement, 
and before night, had taken some very fine trout. 

That night they camped on the banks of the 
river, and feasted on jerked venison, corn-meal 
mush, and coffee, with hot slapjacks, as the trap- 
per called his bread, baked in a frying pan Wild 


52 THE CAREER OF THE STOLEN BOY, CHARLIE. 

honey abounds in these forests, and our trapper 
friend knew how to find it, so Charlie was supplied 
with plenty of honey for his supper. 

When their evening meal was finished, our little 
party retired early to rest ; and sunrise found them 
much refreshed, while the morning air, bracing 
and chilly, gave them good appetites for their 
breakfast. Breakfast over, the camp utensils 
stowed away in the canoe, and they are sailing 
down river again. Three days’ journey brings 
their canoe ride to an end, for they have reached 
the hunting ground — the trapper’s kingdom. 

“Bough country this, but full of game,” said 
the trapper. 

“Yes, and quite secluded,” replied Weston. 

A . log hut with a large fireplace, and mud 
chinked walls and chimney, was to be their shel- 
ter for the winter — their home — and it was very 
acceptable to the wandering refugee, who was to 
share its hospitality. 

The new life had now fairly begun ; and for a 
few days the romance of the situation was very 
pleasing to Charlie and his uncle ; but soon grew 


THE CAREER OF THE STOLEN BOY, CHARLIE. 5B 

monotonous and wearisome to the child, who often 
had to share its solitude alone. Weston found 
both employment and pleasure in the excitement 
of hunting ; and this business had for years taken 
the place of home and friends with the trapper. 

Charlie soon learned to make traps for himself, 
which he set not far from the cabin, and caught 
squirrels, birds, rabbits, and other small game. 
This amusement, and his bow and arrows, gave 
him much pleasure, and served to while away the 
many hours in which he was left all alone. 

The rapidly changing scenes in his forced jour- 
ney had dulled the memory of his early home ; 
and of his father’s death, and the story he had 
heard then, lingered in his mind only as a dream. 

We shudder at the very thought of being left 
alone in a hut, hundreds of miles away from any 
settlement, but Charlie seems to feel no fear, and 
spends part of his time under ‘‘ the grand old live 
maple,” where the trapper has built a rustic seat, 
making traps with a jack-knife which his uncle 
bought for him at the agency. As he whittles 
away at his “ figure-four ” traps, for pigeons, par- 


54 THE CAREER OF THE STOLEN BOY, CHARLIE. 

tridges, quails, or other unlucky intruder that 
trusts his bait, he forgets the loneliness of his sur- 
roundings, and breaks forth in a happy song ; and 
the little birds which, still tarry in their northern 
home, alight on the leafless branches, and join his 
concert. 

What a change has been wrought in the pale- 
faced boy, whom we have seen traveling with his 
father, now far away from the haunts of civiliza- 
tion ; his golden curls have been shorn, and his 
fringed pants, beaded moccasins, and sun-browned 
face make him appear like a true Indian. From 
his journey and mode of living, he has gained 
robust health ; and he has grown into this wild, 
lonely life so gradually, that it has now no terrors 
for him. 

The old log hut or cabin contains one room, 
which serves all purposes ; it has a clay floor and 
board windows, which slide back and forth to ad- 
mit the light. A table made of split slabs, and 
solid in every respect, stands on a frame, set with 
posts in the ground. The stools and benches of 
rustic design and rough workmanship, are made 


THE CAREER OF THE STOLEN BOY, CHARLIE. 55 

from the timber which is abundant in the neigh- 
borhood. Their beds are heaps of branches of the 
fir tree, and dried leaves covered with bufialo 
robes; and would not be readily exchanged by 
either of the occupants of the cabin, for those com- 
posed of feathers or springs. The large fireplace 
occupies one side of the cabin, the stone chimney 
being built on the outside. The stone “ back-log ” 
and the big “fore-stick,” which takes all the 
strength of the sturdy trapper to lift, form the 
base of the big fire, which warms the cabin, and 
is kept burning day and night. 

Sometimes roving bands of Indians pass near 
the trapper’s “camp,” — this is what he calls his 
cabin ” — and if hungry, he gives them meat and 
corn-bread, and smokes with them the “pipe of 
peace,” and they never molest him ; he has 
learned to speak their language, and won their 
friendship ; and he dwells as securely in his wilder- 
ness home as though guarded by armed soldiers. 

When Charlie is tired of his play under “ the 
old live maple,” he draws his little stool beside 
the fire, and regales himself with a bunch of 


56 THE CAREER OF THE STOLEN BOY, CHARLIE. 

‘‘johnny cake” and honey, which his trapper 
friend always has on hand ; and as this feast 
usually leaves him sleepy, he generally curls up 
in the buffalo robes and sleeps for an hour or two, 
which causes him to have bright eyes and open 
ears, when the trapper repeats his tales of wild ad- 
venture to his companion, Charlie’s uncle, beside 
the fire, in the evening. 

The boy stands in the doorway or at the open 
window to watch his traps, and at one time he 
caught a pigeon, which he thought so very pretty, 
that he greatly desired to keep it alive ; so he 
placed it in a basket, and tied one of his uncle’s 
red handkerchiefs over it, until the return of the 
two men from their hunt, and that night the trap- 
per built for him a little cage, in which he kept his 
bird until it became so tame that it would eat from 
his hand, and follow him around the cabin ; and in 
his hours of loneliness, when his little heart seemed 
full of homesick longings, he would place the bird 
upon his shoulder, and tell it about “ Mama, John, 
and Grandma;” and the pigeon would gently 
peck at his cheek with its bill, and “coo,” as 


THE CAREER OF THE STOLEN BOY, CHARLIE. 57 

if in loving sympathy with its little master’s 
sorrows. 

About half a mile from the cabin, the Ked Eiver- 
of-the-Korth gleams like patches of silver through 
the trees ; and sometimes the child wanders down 
to its banks, and as he watches the flowing stream, 
he launches little rafts upon the waters, and tells 
himself that ‘‘when he grows big, he will build a 
canoe, and sail down the stream to And Mama.” 

The two hunters usually returned at night, well 
ladened with game, and highly pleased with their 
success ; and in the course of an hour a smoking 
supper of fried birds or rabbits and corn-meal bread 
attested the trapper’s skill as a cook; and was 
eaten by the two hungry men with a great relish. 

The winter thus far had been unusually mild, 
but the second week of their sojourn in the wilder- 
ness, there came a light fall of snow, covering the 
ground with a pure white carpet, about three inches 
deep ; and furnishing our hero with amusement for 
several days ; for out of this material he built a 
tiny fort, and stormed it with white cannon balls. 
He also built a snow man, and Anally rolled up a 


58 THE CAEEER OF THE STOLEN BOY, CHARLIE. 

very large ball of snow under the ‘^live maple, 
where it remained all winter, and served as a 
target for his arrows, when other amusement 
failed. 

To the trapper, also, the snow was welcome, for 
on it he could the more easily track deers. 

Heavy frosts followed the fall of snow, and all 
things were soon in the grasp of “King Winter,” 
while fierce storms and high winds often rocked 
the log cabin as though they would lift it from its 
foundations. And there came days so intensely 
cold, that the inmates of the cabin hovered over 
the blazing fire, and sought no other employment 
than that of keeping themselves warm. 

On the days when the storms were too fierce for 
them to go out, the hunters passed their time in 
curing the skins and furs they had already ob- 
tained ; and which the trapper expected to dispose 
of in the spring at the Indian agency, where we 
first met him. The evenings were often spent in 
teaching Charlie geography and arithmetic, the 
instruction being conveyed orally for want of books, 
and the stone hearth and a piece of charcoal being 


THE CAREER OF THE STOLEN BOY, CHARLIE. 59 

used instead of a blackboard and cbalk, for pur- 
pose of illustration. 

When we live and mingle with a family or house- 
hold, the steady contact begets a familiarity, that 
often causes us to reveal a history of ourselves, and 
our past lives ; and sometimes we even confide to 
each other important secrets: thus the trapper, 
who was at peace with all the world, soon con- 
fided to his companion the whole history of his 
past life. Telling him without reserve of the 
‘‘farm” near Des Moines, Iowa, where he had 
passed his boyhood ; and where he had wooed the 
black-eyed Lilian, only to be jilted by her when 
the “ city clerk ” oflfered her “ his hand and heart.” 
He also told of the widowed mother who still lived 
at the farm, and to whom he seldom wrote — not 
because he did not love her —Oh no! but then 
writing never came easy to him. He sometimes 
met people at the agency who could tell him about 
her, and he always sent his compliments by them. 
His mother, he had been told, obtained a comfort- 
able living by renting the farm, and laid by a snug 
little sum each year. In fact, it was hers to all in- 


60 THE CAREER OF THE STOLEN BOY, CHARLIE. 

tents and purposes; for lie should never go back 
to claim it, until he got too old to work. 

The farm, which comprised a quarter section, 
and had a snug little frame house on it, which had 
been built expressly for the fair Lilian, was his 
property. He had left it in his mother’s care ; 
and had not seen it, nor his mother, in thirteen 
long years. 

This was the trapper’s story ; and it never oc- 
curred to him to remember that his listening com- 
panion never spoke of his early life, nor had told 
him anything except the story of the burnt cabin, 
which he had accepted as the truth. 

Seven years had passed since the trapper had 
heard from home, and Weston knew that within 
those years great changes had occurred in that 
section. A railroad had already been built which 
reached Des Moines, and another was talked of, 
which would pass near it. 

Weston had never thought of restoring Charlie 
to his mother, except when the promise of the 
large reward had seemed to present means of mak- 
ing a start in life once more. We have seen that 


THE CAREER OF THE STOLEN HOY, CHARLIE. 61 

the fear of detection had prevented him from ob* 
taining the reward, and led him to the retired spot 
where he now was. The trapper’s story had 
pointed out a plan by which he might enrich him- 
self and Charlie, and still retain the boy in his 
possession. He had noticed the growing fondness' 
of the trapper for the child ; and when he thought, 
the proper time had arrived to work out the plol 
he had formed, he said to the trapper one day, “ I 
mean to make a farmer of Charlie, and as I would 
like to locate in Iowa, I will buy your farm, if you 
will sell it, and give it to Charlie when he becomes 
of age.” 

‘‘ But ! I want my mother to enjoy it as long as 
she lives,” said the trapper. 

“ Oh well, we will not claim it in her lifetime. 
Charlie is only seven now ; and when he is old 
enough to work on a farm I will hire it of your 
mother. You can give me a deed of it, to take 
effect at her death, and that is all I will ask, and 
the old lady can live with us if she pleases.” 

‘‘ Well, if you want it for the boy, I’d as soon 
he had it as anybody, after mother. I shall never 


62 THE CAREER OF THE STOLEN BOY, CHARLIE. 

live there again — my home is here. I love that 
boy as though he was my own, and when I go 
where they do such things, I will have the writ- 
ings drawn up to place it in his possession after 
mother’s death.” 

At the time when Weston was plotting to obtain 
possession of the trapper’s farm, the city author- 
ities were trying to buy the land of his mother for 
building lots. The owner could not be found ; he 
had been advertised for, but he came not, and his 
mother was urged to believe him dead, and to sell 
the farm for a sum that would make her very 
wealthy, but she steadily refused. “Her son 
would return some day, and the property was not 
hers.” So the farm remained undisturbed in the 
suburbs of a large and flourishing city. 

Many hunting expeditions had been carried out 
since the trio came to the cabin, and a large num- 
ber of mink, otter, sable, and martin skins had 
been obtained and cured, besides the hides of 
larger animals. 

Charlie had caught foxes enough to obtain a suit 
of clothes from their skins ; these the trapper had 


THE CAREER OF THE STOLEN BOY, CHARLIE. 63 

helped him cure, and with the ready skill which 
comes from having to depend entirely on our- 
selves, had cut and made them into a warm and 
comfortable suit. 

When the extreme cold confined the boy nearly 
all of the time to the house, the days were very 
long and wearisome. But his friend, the trapper, 
kept him supplied with some new curiosity in the 
shape of home-made toys. Wooden chairs, puz- 
zles, and a miniature menagerie, following each 
other as fast as the child became tired of them ; 
these were the work of the jack-knife, and were 
made while Weston was pacing the floor with his 
hands in his pockets, and wishing that spring 
would come. The man was becoming tired of 
his secluded life, and was laying plans to get 
away from it. 

One morning the two men, accompanied by the 
dog, and armed with their trusty rifles, started out 
for a day’s hunt. The air was cool and bracing, 
and they wended their way into the depths of the 
forest, breaking a path through the snow, the trap- 
per leading the way with his usual sturdy stride. 


64 THE CAREER OF THE STOLEN BOY, CHARLIE. 

Tliej had wandered nearly four miles from the 
cabin without seeing any tracks, or starting any 
game, when suddenly the dog gave a snuff at the 
air, and a short quick bark, and the next moment 
they came in sight of a panther, who was crunch- 
ing the bones of a deer beside a fallen tree. 

The trapper immediately took aim at the beast 
with his rifle, and Weston’s gun was leveled ready 
to fire also. Bang went the trapper’s gun, and 
with a cry like that of a wounded child, the pan- 
ther sprang several feet in the air ; but the shot 
had not taken effect in any vital part, and as the 
enraged animal reached the ground he made a sav- 
age spring at his assailants. At this moment 
Weston fired, but his shot went wide of its mark, 
and lodged in the fallen tree. The dog had sprung 
upon the panther, but the animal had shaken him 
off, and as the trapper was in the act of firing the 
second time, he sprang upon his left shoulder and 
hip, knocking the gun from his hands, and drag- 
ging him down to the snow. Weston had re- 
loaded, but he dared not fire, lest he should shoot 
his companion. The trapper had drawn his knife, 


THE CAREER OF THE STOLEN BOY, CHARLIE. 65 

and was cutting his enemy vigorously, but he 
seemed unable to reach his heart. 

“Shoot, he will kill me,” he cried, and this 
time Weston’s rifle did good service, for the bul- 
let passed through the panther’s heart, and the 
animal fell dead at their feet. The trapper was 
badly wounded, and the blood flowed freely from 
the deep wounds made by the panther’s sharp 
claws and teeth. Four miles was a long distance 
for a wounded man to travel ; but there was no 
shelter any nearer, and after his companion had 
bound up his wounds with handkerchiefs, the trap- 
per, leaning upon Weston’s arm, made all haste to 
reach the cabin; but after two miles had been 
passed over, he grew too weak to walk, and Weston 
was obliged to throw aside the guns, and carry 
him part of the time upon his back. The weary 
miles were passed at last, and the trapper reached 
the cabin in a fainting condition. Here Weston 
gave him a drink of liquor, and then proceeded to 
dress his wounds, in which he was greatly assisted 
by Charlie. 

The trapper’s wounds proved very serious, and 


66 THE CAREER OF THE STOLEN BOY, CHARLIE. 

the fever, which his long journey home created, 
kept him confined to his cabin several weeks, so 
that when he was able to be out again, spring had 
come, and they began to make preparations for 
visiting the agency. They built a large canoe, for 
they had a double lot of skins to dispose of, and 
when all their arrangements were made, Charlie 
and the two men went up the river with their load 
of skins and furs; and the deed was executed, 
which gave the farm to Charlie, after the death of 
the trapper’s mother. The instrument was duly 
signed and recorded and given to Weston, who 
was named as the guardian of the boy. The trap- 
per then took leave of Charlie and his uncle ; bid- 
ding the child good-bye with a fond embrace and 
rather moist eyes ; for they had engaged passage 
in a boat bound for a station on the river, from 
which by stage they could reacii the line of railway 
travel. 

Weston had told the trapper that he wished to 
go where he could send Charlie to school, and that 
he would go to Des Moines and “ look up the old 
lady,” and send him word how she was.* This 


THE CAREER OF THE STOLEN BOY, CHARLIE. 67 

plan was very pleasing^ to the trapper and he did 
all he could to help the travelers on their journey. 
Charlie was loth to part with his pigeon, and sorry 
to leave his friend ; but the thought of going to 
school soon blunted his grief. 

Weston had intended to take the most direct 
route to Des Moines, but at the first town at which 
he stopped, a newspaper which he bought and 
consulted for news from the “East,” informed him 
that a child supposed to be the “ Missing Charlie ” 
had been seen at the Ked Eiver settlement ; this 
news alarmed him, for he had now a double reason 
for wishing to retain the boy. If the child was 
found in his possession, he might be charged with 
his abduction ; and he might find it difficult to 
make any one believe his story of how the child 
came into his care. Then if the child became heir 
to the farm in Iowa, the law might see fit to ap- 
point a new guardian, or at the least inquire too 
closely into his past life ; he was afraid of the law 
anyway, and so concluded to wait until the search 
for Charlie was entirely over before he ventured to 
look up the “farm.” 


68 THE CAREER OF THE STOLEN BOY, CHARLIE. 

A party of emigrants bound for Utah passed 
through the town; and Weston soon found means 
to make himself and Charlie members of the party. 
His pitiful story of his burnt cabin, and his sister’s 
death in its flames, served him as well here as with 
the trapper, and a kind-hearted woman took the 
child under her immediate care. The emigrants 
were Germans, speaking but very broken English, 
and Weston had no fear of their learning anything 
from the child that would endanger his safety, 
while he could converse with them quite readily, 
having been proflcient in their language in his 
younger days. 



% 



CHAPTER VI. 




“ Far in the West there lies a desert land, where the mountains 
Lift, through perpetual snows, their lofty and luminous sum- 
mits, 

Down from their jagged, deep ravines, where the gorge, like a 
gateway, 

Opens a passage rude to the wheels of the emigrant’s wagon. 
Westward the Oregon flows, and the Walleway and Owyhee.” 

Longfellow’s “ Evangeline.” 

HAELIE was very much disappoint- 
ed at not being permitted to attend 
school ; but he made no objection 
to going with the emigrant train ; 
and it would not have made any 
difference if he had. A place was assigned him 
in one of the white-topped wagons, drawn by a 
yoke of oxen, and Weston found a place near him 
by driving the oxen. 

Slow and tedious as this mode of traveling 
seems, there' is a wild charm attending it that 
drives away the monotony ; and the changing 




70 THE CAREER OF THE STOLEN BOY, CHARLIE. 

scenery is to the lover of nature a constant source 
of delight. 

Charlie had learned to cook by an open fire dur- 
ing his winter in the trapper’s cabin; and was 
able to make himself quite useful to the family 
with whom he traveled. This family consisted of 
a Mormon with his wife and four children, one a 
babe of eighteen months ; and the addition of a 
quiet, obedient boy, who was willing to amuse the 
baby, or bake the cakes for breakfast, was consid- 
ered rather pleasant than otherwise. 

Spring was far advanced, and the emigrants found 
water and food plenty, so they were able to travel 
twenty miles each day, and as they were seldom 
delayed, the whole train of twenty-five wagons 
moved steadily on. 

Game was abundant ; and the rifles of the men 
kept the train well supplied with buffalo and ante- 
lope steaks, and roasts, and these with prairie 
chickens, rabbits, etc., made their bill of fare 
quite varied. 

At night the impudent coyotes would come 
around the camp and bark, and carry off the 


THE CAREER OF THE STOLEN BOY, CHARLIE. 11 

bones, or anything else that was eatable, which 
they could steal ; and sometimes did carry away a 
load of shot, fired into them by the night watch- 
man; but they were hard to kill, except when 
shot through the heart. 

The emigrant train was not without amusement 
for those who could not find enough in the scenes 
through which they were passing. Among the 
one hundred and sixty souls which were in the 
party, there were many who could draw sweet 
sounds from instruments of music ; and the notes 
of the violin, accordeon and fiute, mingled with the 
music of human voices, were often heard in the 
familiar tunes of the Fatherland ; while around 
some of the camp-fires a few couples were seen to 
join in the moonlight dance. 

The route along the Great Platte valley was a 
scene of great beauty and interest to our travelers. 
The fertile bottom lands, green with verdure, and 
the train daily receiving accessions from other 
routes, which all converge in the Platte valley. 
The scene at the crossing of the Platte was excit- 
ing in the extreme ; the screaming of women and 


72 THE CAEEER OF THE STOLEN BOY, CHARLIE. 

children ; the loud shouts, and sometimes curses of 
the men, mingled with the bustle of nearly a hun- 
dred white-topped wagons, all in sight of each 
other; some just arriving, others just trying the 
ford, and others disappearing over the hills be- 
yond. 

The Mormon children with whom Charlie trav- 
eled were nearly wild with fright, but our hero 
was naturally of a very calm temperament, and 
was accustomed to accept things as they were, and 
make the best of them ; and then he had forded 
rivers before in a wagon ; so he remained quiet 
amid all the bustle; and endeavored to console 
the little daughter of the Mormon, by telling her 
“ there was no danger, for he had crossed streams 
before ;” not realizing at that moment that she did 
not understand a word he was saying. 

When the oxen attached to the wagon which ^ 
preceded them, reared and plunged on entering 
the ford, so that the curtain of the wagon burst 
from its fastenings, and one of the mounted guides 
disappeared for a moment, all but his head, be- 
neath the water, the mother clasped her babe to 


THE CAREER OF THE STOLEN BOY, CHARLIE. 73 

her bosom, and watched with pallid face until the 
stream was crossed, and they were safe on the 
other side. 

For days and weeks the long train of white- 
topped wagons kept on its way undisturbed ; 
passing herds of buffalo and wild horses, which 
scampered away snorting as they approached, 
sometimes packs of hungry wolves followed at a 
distance, seeking the remains of the breakfasts 
which they had left behind. Occasionally the 
night was made lurid by a distant prairie fire ; 
but this trouble never came near enough to molest 
them. They often had to ford streams ; and some- 
times on the banks of rivers they saw Indian wig- 
wams, and squaws planting corn. The most 
curious and pleasing sight to the children was the 
little village of prairie dogs, which they left the 
wagons to examine more closely ; sometimes find- 
ing on the top of the same mound, the burrowing 
owl perched in solemn silence on one side of the 
hole, and on the other, the lively little prairie dog, 
with his head erect and fore-paws hanging down, 
ready at the slightest noise to dart into his hole. 


74 THE CAREER OF THE STOLEN BOY, CHARLIE. 

Occasionally the sod house of some early settler 
came in view; and at the junction of the Loup 
Fork with the Platte Kiver, quite a town was passed 
through, while along the route near this place, 
shanties were plenty in which refreshments were 
offered for sale ; and at these places some of the 
emigrants were wont to refresh themselves in a 
manner which caused night hideous afterwards. 

Farther on, many a snug home marked the dwel- 
ling-place of some successful farmer, and these 
were sheltered by groves of cottonwood trees and 
fenced by hedges of white willow. They were 
passing over the land of which Longfellow speaks, 
when he says, — 

Spreading between these streams are the wondrous, beautiful 
prairies, 

Billowy bays of grass ever rolling in shadow and sunshine p 
Bright with luxuriant clusters of roses and purple amorphas. 

After crossing the South Platte, they followed 
up the Lodge Pole Creek to the Cheyenne Pass. 
They now had to pass over the vast solitary plains 
of Colorado, broken occasionally by rugged butfes 
and bluffs, and famed for their never-failing 


THE CAREER OF THE STOLEN BOY, CHARLIE. 75 > 

breezes even in the hottest days. And this vast 
region was only the grazing field of thousands of 
buffalo, or herds of cattle. As they came near the 
mountains, the scenery became more grandly beau- 
tiful. The most dangerous part of the journey had 
commenced; and the guides of the party had 
many dismal tales to tell of attacks from bands of 
savages, who would hide in the mountain caves, 
and rush out to murder and rob the unsuspecting 
emigrant. Thunderstorms were very frequent du- 
ring their passage through the mountain region; 
and Charlie never forgot the beautiful rainbow 
which he saw in this vicinity. 

Passing through a narrow gorge in the Eocky 
Mountains the train entered the valley of the 
Green Eiver, so called from its peculiar color, 
which is supposed to be owing to the green shale 
through which it runs ; and which is supposed ta 
contain arsenic or chloride of copper, which, adher- 
ing to the pebble stones on the bottom of tlio 
stream, causes the water, as you look into it, to- 
bear the same color. They found this valley rich 
with fossils and petrifactions, of which both 


7 6 THE CAREER OF THE STOLEN BOY, CHARLIE. 

Weston and Charlie would have liked to have 
made a large collection, but they had no means of 
carrying them, so were obliged to content them- 
selves with a few of the most curious moss agates 
and fossil lish. 

A small town built of adobe, was on the bottom 
land directly in front of the gorge ; while Castle 
Rock and the Twin Sisters were plainly visible as 
the travelers passed on their journey. 

The game here was abundant, and some of the 
small streams afforded them plenty of fish. Char- 
lie was very much interested in the manner in 
which the old hunters decoyed the antelope within 
range of their rifies. The hunter would approach 
the herd, and after being seen by them, would 
squat down and wave a handkerchief, and then up 
and down, at the same time moving towards the 
unsuspecting animals; the antelopes curious to 
know what was jumping, up and down, would ap- 
proach quite close, and were easily shot. 

The whole route abounded with agates and other 
curious specimens ; while soda, iron and fresh water 
springs were very plenty and near each other. 


THE CAREER OF THE STOLEN BOY, CHARLIE. YT 

From some of the springs steam was issuing, rising 
high in the air ; and one spring was so hot that our 
party cooked a prairie chicken in it. While one 
man was so incredulous that he took a plunge in 
the pool and was nearly scalded to death ; timely 
assistance saved his life ; and he doubted no longer. 

A petrified turtle nine feet across and fifteen 
in length, was here reported to the emigrants as 
laying by the side of one of the streams leading 
from one of the geyser formations in the Yellow- 
stone valley, that would have adorned the museum 
of any institute in the country. 

One of the hot springs was within twenty-five 
feet of a cold one, and neither seemed to be 
affected by the other. 

The hills and mountains in the vicinity of Bear 
Eiver were said to be infested with robbers ; and 
the women passed through the ravines with pale 
cheeks, and the men looked carefully to the prim- 
ing of their rifies, but the robbers did not appear. 
Bears, elk, catamounts, lynx, and wolves were 
plenty; and sage hens, quails, and ducks were 
added to the daily bill of fare. 


78 THE CAREER OF THE STOLEN BOY, CHARLIE. 

After three months of steady travel our party 
reached the abrupt and massive scenes of Echo 
Canon, beside which the smooth country lying on 
both sides the Platte Kiver seemed dull and tame. 
The scenery here was a constant succession for 
miles, of natural curiosity. Winged Rock, which 
was a singular perpendicular column jutting out in 
front of a ledge, with outstretched wings, looking 
as if it would fly but for its weight. Kettle Rocks, 
which were immense gray boulders, looking very 
much like monstrous kettles ; and Steamboat 
Rocks, called the Great Eastern, and the Great 
Republic. Then there was Witches Rocks, Battle- 
ment Rocks, Egyptian Tombs, Witches Bottles, 
and the Pulpit Rock, with many others too numer- 
ous to mention. 

On the south a portion of the Weber River was 
seen with its green banks and tree verdure forming 
a relief to the bare, dry plains so constantly seen 
in this region. The mountain streams were filled 
with trout; and elk and deer were plenty. 

After leaving Weber Canon the scene changed, 
and the valley with its little villages, grain fields, 


THE CAREER OF THE STOLEN BOY, CHARLIE. 79 

and meadows brilliant with Indian pinks appeared. 
Then the Profile Kocks were passed, and the breezes 
from the great inland sea. Salt Lake, were plainly 
distinguished. Then came the Devil’s Slide, two 
rows of perpendicular rocks about eight feet apart, 
running parallel to each other, and up a steep 
mountain side. Charles gazed at these scenes with 
awe, and wondered if the Devil really did slide 
down that rock. 

A party of miners had overtaken the emigrant 
train just before reaching the mountain region ; 
and kept along with them two or three weeks of 
their journey. Their destination was California; 
and as they were all Americans, Charlie sought 
their society at every opportunity, and soon became 
quite a favorite among them. And as Weston 
found their society so much more to Kis taste^ than 
he did that of the Mormons, he was about devising 
some means of joining their party, when sick- 
ness overtook him and put an end to all of his 
plans. The mountain fever prostrated him, days 
came and went, but he grew steadily worse ; and 
although everything was done for him that circum- 


80 THE CAREER OF THE STOLEN BOY, CHARLIE. 

stances permitted, death claimed him at last ; com- 
ing not to him as it came to Maurice Burton, 
slowly and surely, giving. him plenty of chance for 
repentance and sorrow for past mistakes, and lead- 
ing him to make an effort to restore the lost boy 
to his mother; but claiming him with his mind 
clouded with delirium, and leading him through 
the ‘‘ dark valley seemingly unconscious that he 
was going. He died and they buried him by the 
roadside ; a simple board marking his grave, and 
a pile of stones around it. And thus we leave one 
of whom we might say, — 

Bright was the promise in boyhood, 

Dashing his noonday career; 

But dark was the hour of his manhood 
Passing ^mid danger and fear. 

While dark plans of vengeance pursuing, 

The hour of his doom came at last; 

He rests in the grave on the mountain. 

The time for repentance has past. 



CHAPTEK YIL 


“ My memory tells of au early friend 
Who did a father's care extend, 

When by misfortune, I was left 
Of every earthly friend bereft ; 

And his deeds of love, in my memory seem 
Like fragrant springtime flowers to gleam.’ 



HARLIE was very miicli grieved at 
the death of Weston, for the man 
had always treated him kindly; and 
he was too young to realize that he 
had kept him from his mother ; and 
now that he had no one near him on whom he had 
any claim, he felt all the bitterness of his lonely 
situation keenly. But the kind Father in Heaven 
who watches over the friendless and helpless, was 
raising up a friend for him in his hour of need. 

Among the party of miners, was a tall man of 
commanding presence, who seemed by common 
consent to be the leader of the little party. Be 


82 THE CAREER OF THE STOLEN EOT, CHARLIE. 

tween this man and Charlie there seemed to exist 
mutual liking, and after Weston’s death, he took 
upon himself the task of caring for the child, and 
no one made any objections. 

Among the few papers found in Weston’s effects 
was the deed given him by the trapper ; and this 
the man took care of, telling Charlie it might make 
him rich some day. From the child he learned 
that his father had carried him off from his mother 
because he was “ mad about a divorce,” that his 
mother was living in Massachusetts, but he did not 
remember where. The child knew nothing of the 
great search that had been made for him ; and his 
listener’s mental comment was, “ Some poor fel- 
low who had no peace at home, had started for 
the land of gold, and perished, like many others, 
on the way.” To the child he said, “Well, my 
boy, it is impossible to look your mother up now, 
so we will go to California and get rich, and then 
you can find her, for money will do anything.” 

This proposal pleased the boy ; and as they were 
at a point where the Mormon’s path diverged from 
theirs, he bade adieu to the family with whom he 


THE CAREER OF THE STOLEN' BOY, CHARLIE. 83 

had traveled over three months, and departed with 
the gold seekers. 

The miners were better prepared than the gen 
eral class of emigrants for travel; they had fine 
mules, complete outfits, and now that the country 
was quite level, they made long trips from “sun to 
sun ; ” and after a pleasant journey of three weeks 
were nearing their destination. 

The discovery of gold, a few years before, had 
attracted many to California, and every nerve had 
been strained to reach the new Eldorado. Many 
of the first emigrants, in their haste to get to the 
“land of gold” before the rush, found to their dis- 
ma}^, that they had overloaded their teams, and 
driven too rapidly, thus wearing out their stock ; 
and they were compelled to throw away some of 
their stores, which were afterwards picked up by 
the following trains. 

After passing the Great American Desert, our 
travelers were glad to arrive at the Humboldt 
Wells, as the thirty springs were called, which al- 
ways formed the great watering place and camping 
ground in the days of emigrant overland travel. 


84 THE CAKEEK OF THE STOLEN BOY, CHAKLIE. 

Another group of noted springs were passed, one 
of which was called Chicken Soup Spring, for the 
water by adding salt, pepper, butter, and crackers, 
tasted as much like chicken soup as that which is 
usually served at hotels. 

The waters of these springs were said to be a 
certain cure for rheumatism and all diseases of the 
blood ; to have a remarkable effect in all paralytic 
cases, and to cure consumption when not too far 
advanced 

The Piute Indians catching fish with hooks made 
from rabbits’ bones and greasewood, were a great 
curiosity to Charlie, and he wondered very much 
to see them pull out two or three fish at a time. 
The Puffing or Steamboat Springs also attracted 
his attention ; for every fifteen or twenty minutes 
they would blow up water and steam into the air, 
reminding him of the steamer he had seen leaving 
the wharf just before he joined the emigrant train. 

Our hero, who was now in his eighth year, be- 
gan to show quite a talent for music, and from his 
new friend who played the violin, he learned many 
familiar airs and sang them in a sweet voice beside 


THE CAREER OF THE STOLEN BOY, CHARLIE. 85 

the evening camp-fire, holding his audience silent 
listeners while he sung. 

Being the only boy among so many men, placed 
Charlie in a position to be made quite a pet of, and 
his gentle disposition made him a great favorite 
with the whole party ; and as he remembered his 
winter home on the banks of the river in the forest, 
and many of the stories related by his old friend, 
the trapper, he would repeat them in such an earn- 
est manner that would always win the attention of 
the entire party. He always listened himself, with 
rapt attention, when the men talked of the gold 
diggings, and soon learned the meaning of the 
wild excitement which led men to leave happy 
homes and dare the perils of a long journey to the 
distant regions of which they knew so little. 

He soon became as anxious as the older mem- 
bers of the party to reach that land of which some 
of the men told such stories of fabulous wealth, 
drawn from letters which had been received from 
friends who had gone on before, and he shared 
their joy when they began to tell that the golden 
land was very near. 


86 THE CAREER OF THE STOLEN BOY, CHARLIE. 

The snow-capped Sierras formed the dividing 
line between our eager travelers and the sought for 
goal. What grand scenes here met their view ; 
above the timber line rises tall mountains covered 
with perpetual snow. Cold austere monuments, 
pointing their spires in solemn stillness to the 
skies — who would not like to know how long, how 
very long, they had stood there ? Where man has 
never trod, these pinnacles stand defiant ; and be- 
neath these cold towers, at the base of the snow 
belt, blossom beautiful fiowers, watered by the 
melting snow, seeming in the warm sunlight like 
layers of spring, summer, and winter. The three 
seasons seem to meet the eye at a glance, and im- 
press every one with admiration and awe. 

Donner Lake, with its blue mirror-like surface, 
the little gem of the chain of lakes in the Sierra 
Nevada Mountains was passed by our party, who 
stopped to admire its beauty and listen to the sad 
story of Starvation Camp,” where in the winter 
of 1846-7, a company of eighty-two persons, going 
to California, were overtaken by snow, and lost 
their cattle, and were reduced to terrible straits. 


THE CAREER OF THE STOLEN BOY, CHARLIE. S7 

Thirty-two of this company were females, and 
there were a large number of children. Thirty-six 
were said to have perished, mostly men. Relief 
was sent to the party, but all could not be saved ; 
and a Mrs. Donner preferred to remain and perish 
with her husband rather than go away with her 
children and leave him behind. This tragedy gave 
the lake its name. 

Our travelers turned away with a shudder, and 
with thankful hearts that the}^ had escaped so far 
all the dangers of overland travel. 

This lake was fed by many streams, and was 
now full to its banks with very clear cold water, 
which afforded plenty of speckled trout to the 
hungry travelers. 

The heat was so intense, for it was now midsum- 
mer, that they were obliged to seek the shade of 
the tall pines, and rest at midday, traveling only 
in the cool of the morning and late in the afternoon. 

When descending the mountain side, where the 
palace car now rushes down at the speed of sixty 
miles an hour, into the valley of the Sacramento, 
our travelers were obliged to proceed with great 


88 THE CAREER OF THE STOLEN BOY, CHARLIE. 

caution ; and places were pointed out to them by 
their guide where the emigrant wagons had to be 
let down by ropes, the men taking a turn or two 
with the ropes around the big pines to prevent too 
rapid descent. 

They also saw near the road the track of a large 
landslide, where the snow melted by the summer 
heat, had caused a portion of the mountain to 
slide or slip down, carrying all that stood before 
it. Trees, rocks, earth, and animals were all swept 
on and buried in the ruins. The antlers of deer, 
and bones of bears and other animals could be 
plainly seen at the foot of the mountain where the 
immense weight had stopped. 

What a perilous position for a man to be placed 
in ! Yet men have been caught in these land- 
slides, which occur quite often. 

This landslide had blocked the path down the 
mountain side, causing a delay of ten days to tlie 
first party who attempted to pass that way. Our 
miners came up just in time to be of service in 
helping to clear the path, and were detained five 
days in consequence. 


THE CAREER OF THE STOLEN BOY, CHARLIE. 89 

Among the noticeable features in this locality 
were the tall trees, and the stumps of trees cut off 
eighty feet above the ground. This fact was ex- 
plained by their guide. A great depth of snow 
had fallen the winter before, and these trees had 
been used for firewood by camping parties, who 
had cut them off at the surface of the snow. It 
was said that the snow sometimes drifted to the 
depth of one hundred feet ; and these drifted 
masses, melting in the spring and summer, supply 
the streams with water when no rain falls. 

The road being opened, our party rushed on to 
their destination, until they reached the last of the 
steep mountain paths that they would have to de- 
scend ; here they found themselves obliged to pass 
over a narrow, dim, rough, Indian trail, surrounded 
by precipitous cliffs and craggy rocks, at the peril 
of life and limb, for should their “ buroes” (mules) 
misstep, they were liable to fall three hundred feet 
to the rocks below. 

Their guide pointed out to them a spot where a 
miner had lost his mule and all his effects only two 
weeks before, and when they had reached a safe 


90 THE CAREER OF THE STOLEN BOY, CHARLIE. 

camping ground, he told the story, which was as 
follows : — 

“ Jim Saylor was always lucky at the mines, but 
of a rovin’ nater, and always lookin’ for somethin’ 
better ; he had be’n havin’ good luck at the ‘ Ked 
Dog;’ but bearin’ of the big doin’s up to the 
‘ Tin Cup,’ he fitted out a pack mule with minin’ 
kit and kitchen, and he started over the mount’ in 
path alone. After breakfastin’ near this spring 
here, he lashed his kitchen on one mule’s back, 
and ridin’ another, started for his day’s journey. 
The trail had n’t be’n passed over in some time, 
and had become filled up by rubbish, and badly 
washed by meltin’ snow. You observed the 
mount’in side was terrible steep, ’round where the 
trail went ; and them jagged rocks and the dizzy 
highth above the canon was enough to make yer 
blood run cold. At the steep p’int where I took 
the boy on my back, the pack animal, who was re- 
markable sure-footed ’most-ways, lost his hold and 
with a loud startlin’ bray, and struglin’ clutch at 
the air, he went down, down, the — the bottom of 
the canon, where he lays now, if the wolves and 


THE CAREER OF THE STOLEN BOY, CHARLIE. 91 

buzzards haint car’ed him off. The poor buroe 
and all that was attacfied to him was lost. To 
attempt to save anything wasn’t to be thought on, 
and the whole kit, which cost three hund’ed dol- 
lars was gone past cure. There was nothin’ for the 
unlucky ‘ gold seeker ’ to do, but to go on until he 
reached a place where he could turn ’round, and 
then return to the nearest town, buy a new kit, and 
start ag’in; this he did, and at last reached the 
‘Tin Cup’ in safety.” 

“I tell you what, boys,” said the guide, lighting 
his pipe, when he had finished his story, “this 
minin’ aint all gold, anyway.” 

Charlie and his friends at last reached a place 
on the Stanislaus Kiver, which was called Pine 
Log, because a pine log had fallen over a narrow 
portion of the river in such a manner that it 
formed a rustic bridge, which the miners used. 
Here they decided to locate, and here Charlie took 
his first lesson in placer mining. 

Our hero soon became very handy in the various^ 
departments of surface diggings; and occasionally 
had the pleasure of earning for himself the appar- 


'92 THE CAEEER OF THE STOLEN BOY, CHARLIE. 

cntlj large sum of a dollar and a half in a day ; we 
say apparently large, for when we take into consid- 
eration that it cost from seventy-five cents to a 
dollar to feed a boy in this region, the remainder of 
the dollar, fifty,’would not go very far towards pay- 
ing his board on the days in which their toil 
brought them comparatively nothing. The boy 
however was so useful to the whole mining party, 
that he was welcome to share their meals at any 
time ; and his guardian always laid aside his little 
earnings for a time when he might need them 
more. 

The habits of frontiermen and miners are very 
rough, but there is no class more kind or charita- 
ble to a person in distress. They make no loud 
boasts, but each bestows his mite freely and with- 
out hope of return. Kough songs, rude jests, and 
the practical joke form the sum of the miners 
amusements. An insult is quickly resented, and 
the offender quickly punished. 

Living away from the restraints of society, and 
the softer influence of women, they soon learn to 
act from impulse instead of reason, and as a rule 


THE CAREER OF THE STOLEN BOY, CHARLIE. 93 

their temper becomes quick and ungovernable, and 
they resist any encroachments upon their supposed 
rights by the quickl}'^ drawn bowie-knife or revol- 
ver; and if under the influence of whisky, the per- 
son who chances to incur their displeasure some- 
times meets death at their hands. 

All speedily lose their polish, but all do not be- 
come depraved, and in some the pure gem is still 
seen, shining brightly through the rough exterior. 
They all soon become infatuated with their busi- 
ness, and whether successful or not, they plod on, 
led by the “Will o’ the Wisp” hope which still 
points to the bright future in the distance, when 
they shall behold the golden harvest or silver pro- 
duct of their severe toil. 

Ah ! how intoxicating the dream. They know 
that fortunes have been accumulated in a week, a 
month, or a year ; and they labor on still hoping, 
until from exposure they break down and die, meet 
with some dreadful accident, or from sheer want, 
are obliged to abandon the enterprise. When a 
miner wins a fortune, no one is the loser by it, but 
all around him feel the influence of his gains. 


THE CAREER OF THE STOLEN BOY, CHARLIE. 

For several weeks our party of miners were able 
to keep together; for the camp at which they 
located was rich in surface diggings for many miles 
around, so they could dig and wash out their earn- 
ings in the river and all return to one camp at 
night ; but the time came when they were obliged 
to strap their blankets, provisions, pick, pan, and 
shovel upon a pack mule and trudge over the 
mountains to search for new spots of treasure. 

When a place was reached where the brick color 
of the earth seemed to promise a reward for toil, 
the mule was unpacked and turned out to graze ; 
and the miner went to work with pick and shovel 
to fill his pan with the earth, that he might sepa- 
rate it from the mineral by washing it in the 
mountain stream ; and when the days’ work was 
done, and the evening meal eaten, he would roll 
himself up in his blankets, with a stone or a log for 
a pillow, and no shelter but the starry sky, find 
sleep and rest, except when disturbed by the wild 
beasts which infest this region. 

Charlie usually accompanied his guardian on 
these prospecting tours ; and they were generally 


THE CAREER OF THE STOLEN BOY, CHARLIE. 95 

successful in both finding mineral wealth and free- 
dom from attacks by wild beasts. When making 
their bed for the night, under the side of a shelv- 
ing rock, his friend would sometimes say, ‘‘Never 
mind, Charlie, if the bed is hard ; if we can only 
wash out plenty of “ Cheipsas,” (the term for large 
pieces) in this region, we will go East and find 
your mother.” 

While among the hills, they saw plenty of deer ; 
and one day an accident occurred, which impressed 
itself upon Charlie’s mind, so that it was never 
forgotten. 

One day while making their way through the 
scrubby bushes and small pines they came upon 
two buck deer engaged in an earnest fight ; almost 
every one will stop to witness this sight ; and our 
two friends watched the battle with considerable 
interest. The struggle was a fierce one, for both 
contestants were powerful, and each received many 
a deep wound from the antlers of the other. For 
an hour and a half the bucks plunged at and 
goaded each other without any sign of yielding or 
triumph ; they were about equally matched. At 


96 THE CAREER OF THE STOLEN BOY, CHARLIE. 

last both seemed exhausted, and withdrew a short 
distance from each other, as if bj common consent 
seeking rest. While their gaping wounds bled 
freely, and their breath came in quick short gasps, 
they displayed a wonderful instinctive knowledge 
of the art of healing ; from a shrub or bush which 
grew near them, each buck was seen to pluck the 
leaves, and in wads of six or eight, thrust them 
into the wounds within reach of their mouths. 

Here were self-taught doctors ; and the result of 
their healing art was, that after the space of an 
half hour, they again returned to the charge, and the 
fight was continued until one of the deer broke his. 
antlers, when he turned and fled. The other started 
in swift pursuit, and soon both were out of sight. 

Tlie man and boy were both deeply interested 
in this scene, and they gathered some of the plant 
to carry with them when they returned to the Pine 
Log camp. Here they found the Indians used the 
same herb on fresh cuts and bruises, and also made 
infusions of it for their fever patients. They per- 
haps had learned its virtues in the same way that 
our friends had. 


THE CAREER OF THE STOLEN BOY, CHARLIE. 97 

The party of forty miners who had crossed the 
plains together, soon became widely scattered ; now 
and then some of them would meet and learn from 
each other news of those they had not met. Some 
had made a ‘‘big strike” and gone home rich, via 
the Panama railroad ; others in prospecting had 
struck the bottom of some rocky canon, leaving 
their bodies a prey to the wolf and buzzard ; others 
still, who were fortunate enough to have the means 
by them, had grown sick of the life of risk and 
toil, and returned to earn a sure but humble living 
in the — as the homes they came from 

were called by them. 

One poor fellow had met a sad fate at the hands 
of the vigilance committee. He had gone to a 
new camp where it was said the diggings were very 
rich, and meeting with a miner at the store where 
they had obtained supplies, he had made a partial 
bargain to join him at his claim. He was to go 
to the miner’s cabin in the evening and complete 
the bargain. That night the miner was murdered 
in his cabin, and his bag of gold, which was buried 
in one corner of the clay floor was carried ofl*. One 


98 THE CAREER OF THE STOLEN BOY, CHARLIE. 

of the vigilance committee had seen the stranger 
near the cabin, and the crime was laid to him. In 
vain he denied the accusation; and in six hours 
after he was arrested, he had been launched into 
eternity. The next day two roughs were caught 
stealing horses, and when about to be hung for this 
crime, they confessed that they had murdered the 
miner, for whose death the vigilants had hung an 
innocent man. 

Charlie and his friend had left the vicinity of 
the Pine Log Camp, and were living a few miles 
from Placerville, where Mr. Gordon, Charlie’s 
friend and guardian, kept a store. He had placed 
the boy at school to obtain his long-neglected edu- 
cation ; and was assisted in this, by little sums 
which the successful miners sent to him for that 
purpose, whenever they had opportunity. 

Charlie spent three years at school, and as he 
improved every moment, he was able to acquire 
more useful knowledge in that time than many 
boys obtain in twelve where school is no luxury to 
them. 

At the end of the third yeal- he left school and 


THE CAREER OF THE STOLEN BOY, CHARLIE. 99 

assisted his friend in his store; for Mr. Gordon 
was now doing a large business. Improvements 
had increased rapidly ; stages made daily trips to 
the steamer landing, fifty miles away; and the 
overland mail route and steamship line made com- 
munication with the East comparatively easy. The 
population was continually changing. Newcomers 
were daily arriving, and those who had obtained 
fortunes, or were discouraged with the prospects 
and had friends, were returning to the States. 

New discoveries were reported every day, and 
trade grew prosperous. All staple articles had to 
be brought from eastern cities. A sack of fiour 
could be sold readily for a dollar per pound, and 
other things accordingly. '' 

Among the new comers were those who were 
seeking profitable investments, and to one of these 
Mr. Gordon sold his business at a good figure. 

Five years of constant success^ or well-directed 
industry had made William Gordon a wealthy man. 
In the East he had many friends, and among them 
a blue-eyed girl had promised to wait until he 
could earn the means to support her in the style 


100 THE CAREEE OF THE STOLEN BOY, CHARLIE. 

of living to which she had always been accus- 
tomed. 

This had been the hope that had sustained him 
amid all the dangers and privations of overland 
travel and mining ; and now that which he came 
for was won, the same idol which had cheered him 
in his toil, now lured him to his home. 

Charlie was again to be left without a protector. 
His friend obtained for him what he thought was a 
good situation, for he found a man who promised 
to give him a home^ with a chance to study, and 
wages at a fixed sum per week, in return for labor 
performed. Here he left him with a small sum of 
money, and plenty of good advice, and departed 
to take the steamer to return to his eastern home. 






CHAPTEK YIII. 

*'• The cloud may be dark, but there’s sunshine beyond it; 

The night may be o’er us, but morning is near ; 

The vale may be deep, but there’s music around it, 

And hope, ’mid our anguish, bright hope is still here. 

“ Still here, though the wing of dark sorrow is o’er us, 

Tho’ bitterness dregs every cup that we drink ; 

With a smile in her eye, she glides ever before us 
To yield us support, when we falter or sink.” 

—The Flower Vase. 

OUP last chapter we left Charlie 
at his new home. He was now 
thirteen years of age, and had 
reached a great change in his life. 
Hitherto he had only felt the rule of 
•love. In all the changing scenes of the past, those 
by whom he had been surrounded had always 
sought to make him happy, and to soften for him 
the rough path of his life. How for the first time, 
he had changed a guardian for a master. 

With John Horton, ‘‘a mouth to be fed must 



102 THE CAEEER OF THE STOLEN BOY, CHARLIE. 

earn its bread ; ” and be took care that Charlie 
should be kept well employed at all times; while 
he endeavored to impress upon the lad’s mind what 
a good thing it was to have a home ; and how 
thankful he ought to be to have somebody to take 
care of him and look out for his interests. He 
never believed in praising anybody who was under 
his rule ; it was apt to make them put on airs and 
forget their place. 

If Charlie forgot any of his prescribed duties, or 
failed to perform any of the tasks set him, he was 
told that it was strange he could be so ungrateful 
after all that had been done for him ; the all was 
covered in Charlie’s mind by sufficient of the plain- 
est kind of food. The chance to study which had 
been bargained for, was confined to rainy days 
when nothing else could be done, and the daughter 
of the house happened to be in the mood to lend 
books, or give him help, which was not often ; for 
this young lady did not see any need of the hired 
boy being treated like one of the family; and 
never permitted him to enter the parlor ; that place 
was reserved for the use of herself and her visit- 


THE CAREER OF THE STOLEN BOY, CHARLIE. 103 

ors ; and her books were all too nice to be taken 
to the kitchen, or fingered by a dirty, careless boy. 
And so the boy who might have added much to the 
pleasure of an evening, when she entertained her 
friends with music from the piano, by his sweet 
voice, was early taught that his place was in the 
kitchen when not at work. 

Mrs. Norton was a kind-hearted woman, and if 
she had been left to herself, would have tried to 
make the boy’s life pleasant; but her daughter 
and husband ruled the house, and she was accus- 
tomed to always defer to their wishes. 

John Norton was in very good circumstances, 
and had never denied his only daughter anything 
she asked for. He was proud of her accomplish- 
ments, and liked to speak of “my daughter’s mu- 
sic lessons,” and tell of the very large sum it cost 
for the years she went to the academy ; but his 
early training had made him very penurious, and 
he never liked to incur any expense unless he could 
make a great show, or was certain of sure gains to 
follow. 

This man was a farmer in a small way, and kept 


104 THE CAREEK OF THE STOLEN BOY, CHARLIE. 

the village post-office, together with a small store, 
which contained a stock of miner’s supplies. He 
had been reared in the hack woods of Maine, and 
in his boyhood days there were very few school ad- 
vantages, and he belonged to that class of people 
who seem to begrudge the rising generation all the 
advantages which they possess above those who 
were children fifty years ago. 

He had a vivid recollection of the time, when his 
own wardrobe consisted of one new suit of home- 
spun clothes for Sunday wear and visiting; and a 
suit of the same material well covered with buck- 
skin patches for everyday ; while the one pair of 
heavy shoes per year were only worn when abso- 
lutely necessary. These facts were always served 
up for Charlie’s benefit whenever he was found 
with a book in hand or chanced to forget any 
appointed task. 

He was not a bad man ; indeed he thought 
himself a very good man ; he went regularly to 
church, asked a blessing at the table, and boasted 
that he owed no man a dollar. His present com- 
fortable situation had been obtained by dint of hard 


THE CAREER OF THE STOLEN BOY, CHARLIE. 105 

labor, small savings, and rigid economy in former 
days. And be thought he was fulfilling the terms 
of the bargain William Gordon had made for our 
hero, in the fullest sense of the word. 

The boy ate at the same table with him except 
when his wife had company ; and then, although 
he knew that Charlie always had to wait, he never 
thought to inquire whether any cake or preserve 
was saved for him or not; but the young lady 
daughter did not think it at all necessary to serve 
cake to a hired chore boy, so he seldom obtained 
any sweetmeats ; but his master laid aside his stip- 
ulated wages with great regularity ; and told Char- 
lie that he would take care of the money, and when 
he wanted clothes, he would get th?m for him. 

When Charlie found that he could not obtain 
books in the house which was called his home, he 
sought for them among the neigliboring families, 
and found them quite willing to lend him all he 
wanted ; but his master thought it very foolish to 
waste so much time with books ; he was accustomed 
to remark, “I never had but fifty-two days school- 
ing in all my life, and I always got along well 


106 THE CAREER OF THE STOLEN BOY, CHARLIE. 

enough.” If he saw Charlie with a book in his 
hand, it seemed to arouse a desire to find him some 
other employment; and the boy came to expect if 
his master found him reading, that he would think 
of beans that were to be shelled, or that the store 
wanted sweeping, or of some new goods that he 
had forgot to mark ; for there was never a moment 
in that house when some work could not be found ; 
and at last Charlie began to ask himself, if there 
was any need of his enduring this kind of treat- 
ment. 

William Gordon had said to him when he bade 
him good bye, “ Stick to one place as long as you 
can, Charlie, ‘ a rolling stone gathers no moss,’ and 
if you are not quite suited, don’t leave Si poor home 
until you are sure of a better one.” And this ad- 
vice kept the boy patient nearly a year in the home 
that was so full of small thorns. But when John 
Norton refused him a lamp to go to bed with, 
because he found that the boy often read for hours 
in his lonely chamber, he began to think that he 
had been patient long enough. 

A party of miners coming to the store to obtain 


THE CAREER OF THE STOLEN BOY, CHARLIE. lOT 

supplies, brought to Charlie’s mind a prospect of 
relief from the unpleasantness of his situation. 

He found from their conversation that they were 
bound for some “new diggins ” of which they 
had lately heard ; and Charlie made up his mind 
to go with them. He found no trouble in obtain- 
ing an outfit, for he had never spent any of hia 
wages ; and although his master was unwilling to 
have him leave, and told him he would surely ruo 
the day that he had left so good a home, when ho 
found the boy was determined to go, he paid him 
the full amount due him, in goods from his stock 
in trade. 

From the fund left him by his friend, Mr. Gor- 
don, he was able to pnrchase a mule and still have 
a little cash left for future use. 

On the day appointed, Charlie, with the party of 
miners started for the new discoveries, near tho 
Stanislaus ; and this trip led them through a new 
part of the state, and along the banks of its wind- 
ing rivers, with majestic scenery on every hand ; 
through deep canons, under cliffs of perpendicular 
rocks three thousand feet in height, and among the 


108 THE CAREER OF THE STOLEN BOY, CHARLIE. 

tall redwood trees, whose immense height and size 
have since become the wonder of the world. With 
these scenes now and then mingled a fine stream 
of water whose volume, increased by melting snow, 
formed cataracts and tiny waterfalls, each a pano- 
rama of itself. Camp life amid such scenes was 
very inviting; and our party consisting of four 
young men besides Charlie, who was very tall for 
a boy of fourteen, made a very happy group around 
the camp fire. 

Charlie had become quite an expert as camp 
cook during the two years that he had spent with* 
his friend William Gordon among the mines, but 
I cannot say that he had reached the ability in the 
nrt of making slap-jacks which miners usually 
claim ; for they often say that unless the cook can 
successfully toss his slap-jacks in the air and catch 
them again, nicely turned and right side up, he 
should lay no claim to being a camp cook. Some 
even go so far as to claim the ability to send the 
slap-jack up the chimney and be ready on the out- 
side to catch the same, nicely turned, done brown, 
and ready to be served with bacon, beans, cofiee, etc. 


THE career of the STOLEN BOY, CHARLIE. 109 ' 

Wliile on their way to the diggings our party 
found plenty of game; and the streams afforded 
trout, deer supplied them with venison, and quail 
on toast or ‘ ‘ torteias ’ ’ was common. 

A short distance from the route they were pur- 
suing, the^wonderful Natural Bridges of California 
were to be found, and our travelers paused and turned 
aside in their journey to visit this great curiosity. 

These bridges, of which there were two, were 
reached by passing down a very steep path or trail, 
and all at once they were in sight of, and actually 
under the bridge, which hangs between the high' 
ridges of mountains, like a huge umbrella without 
any handle. The upper arch is forty feet high in 
the centre and two hundred and seventy-five feet 
from the entrance to the end. These formations 
are of cream colored rock, and slope towards the 
ends or entrance. They have the appearance of 
being formed by water running from limestone 
ledges, so much impregnated with lime, as to form 
granulated and solid masses of rock, in the same 
slow manner in which the water forms crustings on 
the inner surface of our teakettles. 


110 THE CAKEER OF THE STOLEN BOY CHARLIE. 

From underneath the arch, stalactites or slender 
spiral points of rock, hang in clusters looking very 
much like icicles, only they are cream color tinged 
with green. These are formed by water dripping 
from above, and are met in places by stalagmites 
from the bottom of the bridge, or rocky floor 
through which a torrent of water roars, forming a 
grand spectacle, and impressing our hero with the 
idea that he must be dreaming of some wild, 
unreal pleasure excursion, from which he will 
sometimes awake to the cold realities of life. 

After leaving this grand and beautiful scene, and 
passing through the grove of mammoth trees, now 
known as the Calaveras Group, where several pros- 
trate trunks were seen that were much larger than 
the tallest trees then standing, — one of them 
measuring over four hundred feet in length, and 
many of the standing trees measuring from ten to 
eighteen feet in diameter — the miners found them- 
selves nearing their place of destination. 

They proposed to engage in river mining ; and 
they located their camp, and built their sluices 
near the banks of the Stanislaus. 


THE CAREER OF THE STOLEN BOY, CHARLIE. Ill 

The sluices were made by nailing three boards, 
twelve inches wide and twelve or fourteen feet 
long, together, forming a bottom and two sides ; 
these boxes or troughs were fitted together, by 
placing the ends into each other, thus forming a 
long line ; in the bottom was placed strips of inch 
square lumber crosswise, at short distances from 
each other; these were called riffles, and were 
intended to catch and retain the gold. These 
sluices were placed where a stream of water could 
pass through them, and the miners by their side 
shoveled dirt into them all day, and at night col- 
lected the sediment that had accumulated during 
the day, and washed it out in their pans, thus 
obtaining all the gold caught in the riffles. Some- 
times quicksilver was dropped into the sluice boxes 
to catch, and cause the fine gold to settle, thus sav- 
ing it all. 

Charlie was now a miner like the rest, and 
depended solely on his own efibrts for support ; but 
he had high. hopes, and sturdy arms. The scenes 
in which his boyhood had been spent, had given 
him robust health, and made of the slender, deli- 


112 THE CAREER OF THE STOLEN BOY, CHARLIE. 

cate boy, a strong-limbed youth ; while living 
almost wholly among resolute men, who were ready 
to dare any dangers to achieve the objects in view, 
had cultivated a strong self-reliant character seldom 
found in one so young.. Each day found him by 
the side of his sluice shoveling the dirt and gravel 
with as much vigor as the rest, and fortune seemed 
to favor his eiforts. 

He still looked forward to a time when he should 
be rich enough to return to the States and find his 
mother. While living with John Norton, he had 
at one time mailed a letter to his foster-brother, but 
this had came back to him, from the dead-letter 
ofiice ; and a letter of inquiries directed to the 
postmaster of the only town in Massachusetts of 
which he could remember the name, brought the 
response that no such person lived there. Thus 
all hope for the future rested in the prospect of 
obtaining wealth enough to go East and look for 
her. The thought that she might be dead never 
troubled him. To the imagination of youth all 
things wished for are possible, and when very 
weary with his hard toil, this thought of finding 


THE CAREER OF THE STOLEN BOY, CHARLIE. 113 

his mother, which had always been his day dream, 
cheered him. 

About a mile and a half from their camp, three 
men were mining in a gulch, and living near their 
mines. These men were almost entirely shut out 
from the world by the high mountains, and no 
traveled* road or trail passed near their cabin, as 
they called the rude dwelling they had built for a 
shelter. They called their place Nugget Gulch ; 
for several gold nuggets had been found there. 
These men sometimes visited the camp by the 
river, and their visits were returned by Charlie 
and his mates. But although these persons often 
met, they never sought to learn each others past 
history. Their conversation was chiefly about the 
'''‘hig find''' of yesterday, or mournful comments 
on the days which brought them nothing. And 
sometimes the miners in the Gulch had tales to 
tell of encounters with grizzly bears, or panthers. 
Thus, although Charlie had lived at the camp by 
the river a year, he had never spoken of his past 
life, only as it was connected with mining. 

These diggings did not prove very rich, only 


114 THE CAEEER OF THE STOLEN BOY, CHARLIE. 

yielding a comfortable support, and one by one the 
members of the party drifted away to otjier camps 
and new diggings, until Charley was left entirely 
alone ; he then sought and obtained leave to make 
his home with the miners at Nugget Gulch. 

The fact of a boy of fifteen being alone in the 
mines without any protector, aroused the curiosity 
of the men from whom he had sought shelter ; 
while his companions had remained, they had sup- 
posed that he was in some way under their protec- 
tion ; but the young men themselves, knowing that 
he had left an unpleasant home when he joined 
them, asked no questions. When questioned by 
these men about his past life, a natural delicacy 
had kept him from speaking about any trouble 
between his parents ; so he began his story with 
the time when he had found the emigrant train 
with his uncle. 

At this time he had been known as Charley 
Weston ; and the boy had almost forgotten that 
he had any right to any other name. The miners 
with whom he had crossed the plains had only 
known him by this name ; and when later years 


THE CAREER OF THE STOLEN BOY, CHARLIE. 115 

had brought added knowledge, and a reference to 
the trapper’s deed had shown him that his true 
name was Burton, he had not thought it of any 
consequence ; so he still answered to the name of 
Weston in his new home. 

One of the miners seemed to feel a great interest 
in Charlie ; he was known among his mates as 
Short John or Dumpy, for he was below medium 
height ; and as he was never called anything else, 
Charlie had been at ISTugget Gulch a whole year 
before he learned that he had any other name. 
This man was about thirty years of age, and had 
met his two companions, who were known as 
Father Thomas and Sam Johnson, at a mining 
camp near the river. Here the three men had 
joined their fortunes, and built the hut in the 
Gulch for a shelter. 

These men were very rough in their manners, 
and inclined to make sport of what they termed 
Charlie’s “fine gentleman airs,” but they were 
kind to him after a fashion, and he was grateful, 
and bore their rough jests with patience. He was 
able to make himself quite useful to them by 


116 THE CAREER OF THE STOLEN BOY, CHARLIE. 

writing their letters home, and cheered the solitude 
of the cabin bj sweet songs and amusing stories 
drawn from emigrant life. 

It chanced one day that Short John, and Sam 
Johnson who always carried a bowie-knife and 
brace of pistols in his belt, went to the nearest 
town to obtain supplies for the camp. After they 
returned, a dispute arose between them, about the 
amount of money paid out, and Johnson, who had 
been drinking, grew very violent and flourished 
his bowie-knife in a dangerous manner. 

Father Thomas had received his cognomen, 
because he was the oldest member of the party, 
being twenty years older than Johnson, who was 
forty, and he was their acknowledged leader. Fear- 
ing that the quarrel would result in blows, he 
stepped between the disputants and ordered them 
to be quiet ; they obeyed, for they accepted his 
commands as law. 

Having produced order, the old man called upon 
Charlie to reckon up the articles purchased and see 
who was right; whereupon Short John pulled a 
paper from his pocket, saying that he always took 


THE CAREER OF THE STOLEN BOY, CHARLIE. 117 

a bill of the goods when he bought for “partners.” 
Charlie took the bill, and read, “John Burton 

bought of ” With an exclamation of surprise 

he let the paper fall to the floor. 

“What’s the matter with you?” asked Father 
Thomas. 

“John Burton was the name of my foster 
brother, who used to live in Troy with grand- 
mama.” 

“And I was brought up with my grandmother 
in Troy,” said Short John. 

“Here’s a family history to be raked up, said 
Father Thomas. I always thought them two 
looked alike.” 

The dispute about money was forgotten in this 
new excitement ; and the other*, two men listened 
with interest while John and Charlie compared 
notes of the past. 

When John told of the uncle who had been so 
kind to him, and afterwards filled a drunkard’s 
grave, being found drowned in the river, which it 
was supposed he had fallen into while drunk — the 
death-bed scene in the forest cabin came back to 


118 THE CAREER OF THE STOLEN BOY, CHARLIE. 

Charlie’s mind like a long forgotten dream, and he 
remembered that the dying man had told of read- 
ing his own death in the paper, and resolving that 
if the folks at home thought him dead, he would 
never undeceive them, until he could go back a 
man they would be proud to know. John’s eyes 
were blurred with tears when Charlie told of the 
lonely death-bed, and the grave under the big 
cottonwood. 

When both Eexford and John spoke of the earn- 
est search that had been made for the missing boy, 
Charlie recalled the time when he had started for 
the East, and the hurried wandering journey had 
ended at the trapper’s cabin ; and both men saw a 
connection between the letter he spoke of as having 
been sent by Weston to his mother, and the one 
which sent Mary Burton’s agents into the wilds of 
Michigan to look for the lost boy. 

Sam Johnson declared the story was as good as 
a novel, and proposed “to treat all round,” in 
honor of Charlie’s new found relatives ; an offer 
which was promptly declined, for Johnson was the 
only one in the cabin who ever tasted intoxicating 


THE CAREER OF THE STOLEN BOY, CHARLIE. 119 

beverages. The drunken man had regained his 
good humor; and instead of being angry when his 
treat was declined, he poured out a glass of brandy 
and “ drank the health of the lady who was going 
to find her baby,” and then betook himself to bed 
to sleep off his drunken frolic. 

Charlie and his other friends sat up late that 
night to talk over the strange events which had 
just come to their knowledge ; and the young man 
expressed himself very anxious to see his mother 
at the earliest possible moment. 

“I remember now,” said Father Thomas (his 
proper name was Rexford), “coming on the same 
steamer with your mother. Poor woman ! Her 
friends thought she was in consumption. Your 
sure she’s livin’, John?” 

“Yes, she was six months ago; for I saw a 
friend right from the same neighborhood, and he 
told me about her.” 

A trip to San Francisco and back would take 
some weeks, but the sympathy of Thomas Rexford 
was aroused, and he suddenly resolved to start 
with Charlie the next day, and take his bag of 


120 THE CAEEER OF THE STOLEN BOY, CHARLIE. 

gold, the savings of many years, and send the pro- 
ceeds home to be invested in land which was selling 
at a low figure in his native town. 

This plan agreed upon, Charlie .and his two 
friends retired to rest. 

The next morning Charlie and the old man 
strapped their gold upon their persons, and each, 
mounted upon a good mule, set out on their jour- 
ney. It was the intention of both to return again 
to the Gulch, and their companions wished them a 
happy journey. 




CHAPTEE IX. 


“ I •wonder that some mothers ever fret 
At little children clinging to their gown ; 

Or that the footprints when the days are wet, 

Are ever black enough to make them frown. 

If I could find a little muddy boot, 

Or cap, or jacket, on my chamber floor — 

If I could kiss a rosy, restless foot. 

And hear it patter in my house once more. 

If I could mend a broken cart to-day. 

To-morrow make a kite to reach the sky. 

There is no woman in God’s world could say 
She was more blissfully content than I.” 

—Selected . 



AEY BUETOX had been an inmate 
of her brother’s family for ten 
years — weary years they had been 
to her — filled with patient sorrow 
and waiting; bitter years, picturing 
the lost one, the victim of cold and hunger, of 
harsh treatment, of manifold temptations ; and 
then came those years of more subdued sorrow, 
when her heart had learned to wait, doing the will 


122 THE CAREER OF THE STOLEN BOY, CHARLIE. 

of the Master, accepting with calm patience what 
each day brought — as from the hand of the Lord. 

Changeful years they had been, for death had 
entered the family and taken a loved one, leaving 
the bereaved husband and daughter to need her 
consolation and care. JN’ow we find her in her 
brother’s home acting as housekeeper; for he is a 
widower, and his position as a prominent physician 
makes her cares and duties numerous. 

‘‘I feel unusually light-hearted this morning,” 
she said to her sympathizing brother. 

“Perhaps you will hear some good news soon.” 

“I am afraid this relief to my usually oppressed 
heart is but the precursor of some new disappoint- 
ment.” 

“ Please do not always look for disappointments, 
auntie,” said the sweet voice of the doctor’s daugh 
ter. “ The mail from the East is due this morning, 
perhaps you may hear some good news ; some trace 
may have been found of Charlie.” 

“Yes, this is the day for overland mail, and the 
steamer is overdue three days, but I seldom receive 
letters, you know.” 


THE CAREER OF THE STOLEN BOY, CHARLIE. 123 '- 

There is an old proverb, “ Coming events cast 
their shadows before.” Why may we not change 
the idea a little, and repeat, cast their sunlight 
before them. Certainly there is a powerful mag- 
netism that attracts heart to heart ; and the eager- 
ness that glowed in the heart of that long separated 
son, now speeding over the road to the city in the 
mail stage, was reflected like sunlight in the heart 
of the mother, as she went about her daily duties, 
humming an old tune. 

The welcome mail would soon arrive. What an 
eager throng was already waiting at the post-office, 
just down the street. Many would go away with 
joyful faces, and others with disappointed looks 
and sad hearts, missing the letters that never 
came. ‘ ‘ Hark ! there comes the stage, ’ ’ was heard 
in nearly every house ; for the day on which the- 
overland mail was due, was an event of great 
importance. 

‘‘Oh, auntie, the stage is stopping here!” 
exclaimed Alice Kossimere. ‘ ‘ Somebody is getting 
out ! ” 

It was Thomas Kexford who left the stage first,. 


124 THE CAKEER OF THE STOLEN BOY, CHARLIE. 

and Mary Burton recognized the kindly face of the 
man who had shown her so many kindnesses on 
board the steamer when her heart was so nearly 
crushed by her recent loss / but a young man was 
descending now, and the mother’s heart gave a 
quick throb ; for there was the same blue eyes, and 
light wavy hair of the boy she had not seen in 
nearly eleven years. Her heart could not deceive 
her, and in a moment she had flown to the door, 
and mother and child were folded in a loving 
embrace. Tears followed freely, but they were 
tears of joy — and the flrst meeting over, the friendly 
miner was greeted with a hearty welcome and over- 
whelmed with thanks. 

After an hour had passed. Dr. Rossimere re- 
turned from his round of morning calls, and gave 
to the nephew he had never seen before a fond 
embrace, and to the elderly gentleman who had 
assisted at the reunion of mother and son a heart- 
felt welcome. 

A happy party were soon seated at the nconday 
meal ; but the joy and excitement in the hearts of 
two, at least, did not leave them much appetite for 


THE CAREER OF THE STOLEN BOY, CHARLIE. 125 

dinner. The story of the meeting in the mines, 
by the foster brothers, was discussed ; the thrill of 
joy that pervaded the mother’s heart in the morn- 
ing, was referred to, and then Mr. Rexford began 
to talk of returning to the mines, and asked Char- 
lie if he was going back with him. 

It was the doctor who answered the question. 
No! Mary cannot spare her boy, she has been 
deprived of him so long.” 

‘‘I’m a man now,” said Charlie, “and I must 
make a home for my mother. She has been 
dependent upon the bounty of others long enough.” 

“We will admit, Charlie, that 'you are a man in 
stature, and a well-proportioned one,” said the 
doctor, gazing with pride on his nephew, who was 
six feet in height, and although of slender build, 
possessed strong, well knit limbs, “but a boy of 
sixteen has much to learn before he will be capable 
of making a home for his mother ; besides, I am 
not ready to spare my housekeeper yet.” 

The question of Charlie’s returning to the mines 
was at once settled by the doctor promising to find 
him some employment in the city ; and the kind 


126 THE CAREER OF THE STOLEN BOY, CHARLIE. 

friend who had accompanied him was pressed to 
remain for a long visit. He decided to accept the 
hospitality offered him for three days, after which, 
he said he must return to the gulch, for his two 
friends there would begin to be anxious at his long 
absence. The three days were spent by Mary Bur- 
ton and her niece in showing their visitors the prin- 
cipal objects of interest in the city, and then Mr. 
Bexford bade them farewell, promising to some- 
time visit them again, and returned to the mines, 
well pleased with his errand, and carrying with 
him pleasant recollections of one face he had left 
behind. t 

After their visitor had gone, the family inquired 
more particularly into the past life of their long 
lost relative; and Mary Burton wept over the 
death-bed scene in the forest cabin ; forgiving in 
her heart the wretched man who had caused her 
so much sorrow, when she heard from the lips of 
her son of his repentance and lonely death. When 
Charlie told of the v/ild journey, which had ended 
at the trapper'' s cabin, and of the months spent 
with the Mormon emigrants, the doctor and his 


THE CAREER OF THE STOLEN BOY, CHARLIE. 127 

sister both thought of the gay and dashing Arthur 
Weston, and felt sure that it was the same man who 
was sleeping in the lonely grave by the mountain 
roadside. 

When the story was all told, the mother clasped 
her boy in her arms, and sent up a silent prayer of 
thanksgiving, that her child had been kept in safety 
amid all the perils of his surroundings. The long 
weary years of praying and waiting had passed ; 
the full fruition of her hopes had come —her boy 
^vas restored to her again ; not as he might have 
come, soiled and tarnished by his contact with 
the world, but a picture of manly beauty, with a 
heart as pure and unsullied as it was the day he 
left her side ; and she realized at this moment the 
full force of this great blessing. 

When the mother told of the weary years of 
waiting, and the bitter tears she had shed as she 
thought of what might be his fate, Charlie kissed 
her, and told her he would make her last days her 
best days. 

‘ ‘ How very tall you are, for a boy of sixteen, ’ ’ said 
his mother one day when they were alone together. 


128 THE CAREEK OF THE STOLEN BOY, CHARLIE. 

“I have lived among tall trees and tall moun- 
tains,” he said, laughing; and then more soberly, 
“Uncle William calls me a boy, but he does not 
know that I have felt a man’s responsibility for the 
last three years.” 

The beautiful month of May had come with its 
buds and flowers ; and the orchard near the house 
was white with apple-blossoms just ready to shed 
their bloom in a white carpet on the ground. 

Three weeks had gone by since Charlie’s return, 
and they had been so full of pleasure that they 
passed away very swiftly ; but the young man was 
growing uneasy; he had compared his mother’s 
pale, wan face with the picture taken twelve years 
ago, and had noticed that the bloom had faded 
from her cheek, and he was anxious to be at work, 
earning for her that home which had now become 
the goal of his ambition. 

The time he had spent in William Gordon’s store 
and his year with John Norton had fitted him 
for a clerk’s position. Helped by his uncle’s influ- 
ence, he found no difficulty in obtaining a clerk- 
ship, which he retained for two years, saving quite 


THE CAKEER OF THE STOLEN BOY, CHARLIE. 129 

a sum each year. After this time an opportunity 
offered to engage in a business that brought him a 
large sum of money in a short time. This business 
was traveling to sell musical instruments on com- 
mission ; his former wandering life had given him 
considerable knowledge of the country, and a nat- 
urally pleasing address and ready fund of anecdote 
gained him admission where others would not have 
been received. He gave every energy to this busi- 
ness, and found it very profitable. 

After he had spent two years as a traveling 
agent, he was able to furnish a humble home for 
his mother. He was very glad to be able to do 
this, for his uncle had taken another wife, and now 
that her brother no longer needed her services, she 
did not wish to remain a burden upon his charity. 

What a satisfaction it is to have a home of your 
own, be it ever so humble — a place where you can 
do as you like, without fearing that some one will 
think you are taking liberties — where you know 
you are always welcome, and no one has a right to 
intrude upon you. 

To the mother who had been deprived of a home 


130 THE CAREER OF THE STOLEN BOY, CHARLIE. 

of her own for fifteen years, this change was very 
grateful ; to the young man who had never felt the 
blessing of a home since he could remember, a 
little cottage furnished and -supported by himself 
seemed a paradise of itself. When returning 
from his toil, the fiutter of the white curtain 
through the partly open blind, and the perfume of 
the climbing rose by the door, brought to his mind 
a sense of possession that was very sweet. 

One evening while Charlie was chatting with his 
mother, something led them to refer to the past, 
and the conversation drifted back to the winter in 
the trapper’s cabin ; this brought the deed to Char- 
lie’s mind. Now he had never mentioned this deed 
to any one since William Gordon returned to the 
States. Shortly after his return from school, he 
had mentioned the deed to his friend, and Mr. 
Gordon had then given it into his possession, with 
the remark that “ he did not know as it was good for 
anything.” He now mentioned it to his mother, and 
she, after examining the document, advised Charlie 
to write to the agency and see if he could learn any- 
thing about the trapper, and this he did at once. 


THE CAREER OF THE STOLEN BOY, CHARLIE. 131 

About this time our hero made the acquaintance 
of a young lady toward whom he felt very much 
attracted. For four years the love of a mother had 
seemed all that was necessary to his happiness ; but 
the society of the opposite sex had great attractions 
for him, and he soon overcame all the awkward- 
ness which his early training caused him to feel in 
polite society, while his sweet voice, genial dispo- 
sition, and varied travels, made him a welcome 
guest at many firesides. 

During his travels as a salesman he had met 
this lady, whom he thought was the one, of all 
others, necessary to his happiness. She possessed 
great beauty and intelligence, and the attraction 
between them was mutual. Three months acquaint- 
ance served to convince this pair that they were 
intended for each other ; and the end of it all was, 
a quiet wedding one bright June morning in a small 
frame house in the valley of the Sacramento. After 
two or three weeks spent in farewell visits to the 
companions of her girlhood, Charlie brought his 
wife to San Francisco, and left her with his mother 
at the cottage on the hill, which overlooked the bay. 


132 THE CAKEEK OF THE STOLEN BOY, CHARLIE. 

while he still pursued his vocation of traveling 
agent. 

Charlie’s mother was very much pleased with 
his choice, and it was very pleasant to her to have 
the companionship of a young girl to cheer the 
hours of loneliness when his business called him 
so much from home. It seemed hard for this 
mother to be separated from her son at all, but he 
seldom remained away long at a time, and always 
left an address at which she could write to him. 
His own letters to her were very frequent, and now 
the presence of his bright-eyed wife made her home 
very attractive. 

Charlie was a great lover of home, and the wan- 
dering life he had been forced to lead only served 
to make it dearer to him ; and now that he had 
taken a wife, he began to think seriously of seeking 
some other employment. It is true, the business 
in which he was engaged, furnished them with a 
comfortable support, but it had this drawback, that 
it took him so much from home. 

About three weeks after his marriage he received 
an answer to the letter he had sent to the agency. 


THE CAREER OF THE STOLEN BOY, CHARLIE. 133 

where he had first met the trapper. He had 
received no intelligence from this part of the coun- 
try since that day on which he had bid the trapper 
and his pet pigeon good bye when he had expected 
to start for school at Des Moines. 

His letter now told him that his kind friend was 
dead ; that he had been killed by a falling tree ; 
and had perished with no one . near him, but the 
dog which had been his companion for many years. 
The friendly Indians, he had often fed, had found 
his body, with the dog watching beside it, and 
buried it. This was sad news to our hero ; and he 
recalled, with moistened eyes, the many little toys 
his kind friend had made for him; and how he 
had striven in every manner to make that lonely 
cabin pleasant. 

His letter also stated that there was a deed on 
record giving the farm in Iowa to Charles H. Bur- 
ton ; that this person had been advertised for, and 
the property placed in the hands of an agent until 
an owner could be found. The farm had been 
divided into town lots, and the owner not appear- 
ing, the trapper’s mother after being convinced 


134 THE CAREER OF THE STOLEN BOY, CHARLIE. 

that her son was dead, had signed a writing con- 
senting to the sale of some of these lots. 

Charlie sent a letter to the county recorder and 
obtained the address of the agent holding posses- 
sion of the property. It took several months to 
get at all of the facts of the case; but the final 
result was very pleasing. The property was his, 
without doubt, after the death of the old lady, who 
was represented as very feeble, and very anxious to 
meet the young man, in whom her son had taken 
such an interest. The trapper had written to his 
mother, when he had failed to hear anything from 
Weston, and had told her of the little boy to whom 
he had given the farm, after they had got through 
with it. The agent advised that Mr. Burton should 
come at once to Des Moines and prove his right. 

This piece of information came in good time. 
The little cottage on the hill was to be sold, and 
Charlie was expecting to be obliged to leave this 
home that had been so pleasant to him. With the 
prospect of a large fortune soon coming into his 
possession, our hero found no trouble in hiring 
money enough to purchase the cottage in which 


THE CAREER OF THE STOLEN BOY, CHARLIE. 135 

they lived. Desiring a rest, and having enough 
money in the bank to pay the expenses of a trip to 
Des Moines, he decided to take his wife and go 
East. The completion of the Pacific Pailroad had 
made such a journey nothing but a pleasure excur- 
sion, and the appearance of John Burton at the 
cottage, just at this time, removed the last obstacle 
in the way of the journey, that was — somebody to 
stay with his mother. 

Charlie had held a correspondence with his old 
friends in the mines, and had often urged them to 
make him a visit ; but the time for visiting had not 
come for either of them. Now the camp in the 
Gulch had been broken up; Sam Johnson had 
been killed in a drunken fight with another miner ; 
and Thomas Kexford and John had made arrange- 
ments to commence the broker’s business in San 
Francisco. Mr. Kexford had invested his bag of 
gold in bank stock in San Francisco, instead of 
sending it to the States as he had at first intended, 
and both he and John came to board with Char- 
lie’s mother. 

They had celebrated our hero’s twenty-first birth. 


136 THE CAREER OF THE STOLEN BOY, CHARLIE. 

day, soon after John’s arriyal, and on the first day 
of the New Year, Charles K. Burton and wife took 
tickets in the palace car for Omaha. 

How different was this journey from the one he 
had made thirteen years before, as seen from the 
window of the palace car ; not only that everything 
was dressed in its winter robes, but the hand of 
time had wrought many changes. The same tall 
trees and mountains were there ; the same wonder- 
ful rocks, deep canons, and dark ravines; but the 
former desolate region was enlivened by houses, 
shops, hotels, and the busy hum of life where only 
nature had been visible before ; and where he had 
then made but twenty miles a day they passed 
over in an hour — each hour presenting some new 
feature ; now dashing through a tunnel, then a 

■9 ■ 

snow shed, up the steep mountain road, and 
again into a valley, until the level plains were 
reached. 

Charlie and his wife had risen early on the morn- 
ing that they crossed the plains, and were rewarded 
by seeing the sun rise in majestic glory from behind 
the mountains just visible in the dim distance ; 


THE CAREER OF THE STOLEN BOY, CHARLIE. 137 

while the frightened buifalo and deer scampered 
away over the plains now white with snow. 

Along the waste country lying between the 
Wasatch Eange and the Eocky Mountains, they 
saw many beautiful, bright pink flowers growing 
in and through the snow, which were called snow 
flowers, and were very curious. They were a spe- 
cies of fungie, resembling somewhat the Indian 
pipes or convulsion weed which we And in swamps 
in the Eastern States during the spring. 

Arriving at Des Moines, he soon found the agent, 
and was received with all the deference due to the 
handsome property he was expected to inherit; 
from this person he learned the whereabouts of the 
trapper’s mother. 

The agent, together with Charlie and his wife, 
paid a visit to the old lady to arrange the law mat- 
ters between them, for she was anxious to give up 
the property to her son’s protogee, retaining for 
herself only a yearly income sufficient for her sup- 
port. 

She gave the young man and his beautiful wife 
a kindly welcome ; and inquired the name of his 


138 THE CAREEK OF THE STOLEN BOY, CHARLIE. 

parenjis, and his home in the East, tracing his ped- 
igree away back to his great grandfather, on his 
father’s side, then embracing him with tears of joy 
she exclaimed, “’Tis as I thought, you are the 
child of my youngest brother.” 

Charlie had heard his Aunt Jane mentioned by 
his mother, but she had not been heard from for 
years, and was supposed to be dead. She told her 
listeners that she had gone West with some distant 
relatives, at the age of fifteen. The family had 
located themselves in Iowa, and built a cabin upon 
a tract of government land. When she was about 
seventeen, the house had been plundered and 
burned by the Indians. Her cousin and his son 
had fallen in the defence of their home, and his 
wife, who had been wounded, was dispatched by 
the tomahawk and thrown into the fiames, while 
she had been carried away captive. She had been 
rescued by a trapper, who asked her to become his 
wife. They were married, and he had taken up 
the farm and built a sod-house upon it, and there 
they had dwelt happily together. 

They had been blest with two children, a girl 


THE CAREER OF THE STOLEN BOY, CHARLIE. 139 * 

and boy. Her daughter and husband had been 
removed by death before her son had reached his 
twelfth year ; but her son had always been good to 
her, and provided her with a comfortable home 
until that false-hearted girl had turned his head. 
He had taken after his father for hunting ; and 
although he never came home, or wrote to her 
much, she did not blame him; he knew she had 
all she wanted. She had written once to her 
friends in the East, but not receiving any reply, 
she thought they had forgotten her. 

The old lady’s health was rapidly failing, and 
she begged her new found relatives to remain with 
her to the last. This they did, her death occurring 
in three weeks after their arrival. 

After the funeral, the property, which was quite 
valuable, was all disposed of, making the fortunate 
owmer worth forty thousand dollars, after all 
expenses were paid. 

This sum he placed on deposit with a reliable 
banking house, and started with his wife to visit 
the home of his boyhood. He soon found the city 
in which he was born, and the one from which he 


140 THE CAREER OF THE STOLEN BOY, CHARLIE. 

had been stolen. Here he was able to point out 
to Minnie, his wife, the identical schoolhouse from 
which he had been abducted, the locality having 
been given him by his mother. 

There was no one in either place with whom lie 
was acquainted, for his aunt and grandmother were 
both dead ; and after looking at the few houses, 
which his mother’s description had localized to 
him, and visiting the objects of interest to strang- 
ers, which both cities contained, they took a state 
room on one of the sound steamers for Hew York 
and from thence they traveled in the palace car to 
San Francisco, stopping by the way to visit the 
principal cities, that Charlie might decide where to 
locate his future home. 

In Chicago he met several gentlemen who were 
interested in mining, and were about forming a 
new company. Charlie became one of the com- 
pany, and was elected as its agent for the Golden 
State. The business arrangements all being com- 
pleted, Charlie and his wife departed for their 
Western home. 

“What an eventful life I have had,” said Cliar- 


THE CAREER OF THE STOHOT?BOY, CHARLIE. 141 

lie, turning from the ear window, to address his 
wife. 

“Yes,” replied she. “It seems more like a 
story than reality.” 

“ I wonder how much more of tumult and change 
I shall have to pass through,” said he, gazing 
intently at the distant hills, now bathed in the 
slanting rays of the setting sun. 

“ Oh ! we will hope for a brilliant life and happy 
days. We are both young and may have a long 
life before us ; we certainly have a very fair pros- 
pect.” 

Minnie Burton had a hopeful nature, and always 
looked on the bright side of things. 

“When I get home I shall have to go to mining; 
how will you like to exchange city life for the rough 
mining districts, and no society to speak of?” 

“I think it will be splendid! I always loved 
rough scenery, and as for society, I shall have you 
my dear, and I will ornament our home with the 
curious things which are always so plenty in mining 
regions.” 

“What a surprise for mother we shall have, 


142 THE CAREEK OF THE STOLEN BOY, CHARLIE. 

when we tell her about Aunt Jane. I have not 
written about this, there was so much to tell — and 
that poor fellow who did so much for me, was mv 
•own cousin.” 

“ See that steamer, Charlie.” Minnie was point- 
ing down the Mississippi, for the train was nearing 
the river, and steamers were passing in both direc- 
tions. The one that attracted Minnie’s attention 
was just coming towards the great bridge that 
«pans the river, and would have to pass under the 
bridge, while the cars were going over it. Minnie 
felt some curiosity to know how the steamer could 
pass the bridge without its being withdrawn ; and 
while her husband was explaining that the bridge was 
built high enough not to interfere with the steamer, 
the handsome boat passed up the river directly 
under the car window, making a very fine picture. 

They were soon passing over the same streams, 
past the same landmarks, and close to the road 
that he had traveled over with the Mormon emi- 
grants. A few days more and they were at the 
little cottage on the hill, where they were received 
with a glad welcome from the waiting mother. 


/ 

THE CAKEER OF THE STOLEN HOY, CHARLIE. 143 

Not many days after their return they bade John 
Burton good-bye on the deck of the mail steamer, 
wishing him good luok, for he had decided to 
return to the States. 

In a week there came another parting, for Mr. 
Burton and his wife were obliged to leave tor the 
distant mountain region, in the northern part of the 
State ; but before they went, they assisted at the 
private wedding of Mary Burton and Thomas Kex- 
ford ; and Charlie made the happy pair a present 
of the cottage on the hill. 





CHAPTEE X. 


“ Oh, there is a solemn peace, and strength sublime, 

And holy fortitude, and deep, sweet rest 
In all our thoughts and visions of that cUme 
Where dwell the spirits of the loved and blest. 

In every hue of gladsome beauty drest, 

They come across our hearts like gleams of light. 

Fraught with a mission, at God’s high behest — 

A mission to relieve our mental sight 
By ghmpses of a life where all is calm and bright.” 

— Flower Vase. 



HE marriage of Charlie’s mother came 
about very suddenly to all concerned ; 
but the bridegroom urged that as 
they had known each other tor many 
years, and were both advanced in 
life, there was no need of a long courtship ; and as 


Charlie and his wife were both intending to leave 
her so soon, the bride was more willing to consent. 
The next morning after the wedding, Charlie 


Burton and wife started for the mines, for which he 


was to act as superintendent and business agent. 


THE CAREER OF THE STOLEN BOY, CHARLIE. 145 

They were situated on the banks of the Yuba 
River, and the journey, which was partly by rail 
and partly by stage, occupied five days. A small 
house was obtained about three miles from the 
mines, and furnished plainly, and this place, which 
was to be their home, Minnie at once set herself 
at work to render cheerful in every possible man- 
ner. The walls, which were of matched boards, 
and were not papered, she’ hung with pictures 
which they had brought from the city. The win- 
dows were curtained with plain white muslin, trim- 
med with lace knit by her own fair fingers, while 
the chintz-covered lounge and cushioned rocker 
were made more tasty by the addition of the em- 
broidered tidies which had been the wedding gifts 
of her young lady friends. Three boards, of grad- 
uated length, finished on the edge by strips of 
leather, making an indented or scalloped edge, 
stained black and varnished, made a very pretty 
bookshelf, when held in place by strong cords. 

They had reached their stopping-place near the 
last of February, and the rainy season, which had 
just set in, kept Minnie nearly all the time within 


146 THE CAREER OF THE STOLEN BOY, CHARLIE. 

doors, and she spent her lonely hours in adding to 
the beauty of their home. 

The kind of mining which this company engaged 
in, was called placer mining by hydraulic force. 
This is considered the most thorough system of 
placer mining, for large quantities of earth are 
washed down in a short space of time by the force 
of a very heavy pressure of water. Streams of 
great volume are led into ditches and flumes, from 
great distances and high altitudes, to a large reser- 
voir, or other confining points ; and from here 
they are led through large pipes, down mountain 
sides, up over steep hills, finally to the distributing 
points, where the pent up volume is allowed to 
rush against the side of a hill, with great force, 
through a small pipe not more than ten inches in 
diameter, carrying everything before it. By this 
means whole hills are washed down, and the waste 
water, dirt, rocks and debris are at last lead 
through long flumes, subdivided, and continued in 
some cases many miles. The gold is caught on 
the bottom of the flume, which is composed of two 
bottoms, one made of five or six inch thick pieces 


THE CAREER OF THE STOLEN BOY, CHARLIE. 147 

of timber, sawed from the ends of logs, and 
placed in the bottom of the flume for rifiles, and to 
protect it against wear from the rocks that pass 
through it. 

It took some time to get everything ready for 
operation; and then six months passed before a 
clean-up was thought desirable. 

The clean-up took eight weeks, and was conducted 
in the following manner : All of the water, or 
nearly all, was shut off, and the log ends pulled 
out from the bottom of the flume, and the settled 
ore and sand were allowed to work gradually off by 
forcing a small stream of water through the flume, 
thus carrying to its mouth the bulk of the dirt, and 
at convenient distances wide water-platforms were 
placed with riffles or strips nailed closely together, 
being not over one and a half inches apart, and 
over this the sediment was Anally washed, and 
thus the gold was saved. The result of nearly nine 
months’ labor was a small dividend after paying all 
of the costs. 

Our hero found his work very confining, but he 
received a good salary, and was intending to remain 


148 THE CAEEEE OF THE STOLEN BOY, CHAELIE. 

another year at this place ; but just at this time a 
gi’eat excitement was raised among the miners in 
the neighborhood by the silver discoveries of 
^Tevada. There was a great rush for the new dig- 
gings, and for a while men could not be found to 
work the mines near the Yuba. Charlie at last 
became infected with the prevailing fever of emi 
gration, and soon gave up his situation and joined 
the crowd that were pushing into Washoe County. 

A twenty-four hours’ ride by railroad brought 
Mr. and Mrs. Burton to Virginia City. They 
found more men already gathered here than could 
find employment, and leasing a hotel they com- 
menced the business of entertaining guests. This 
they found very successful, for Charlie proved a 
most agreeable host, and Minnie showed herself 
capable of ruling a large number of servants in the 
very best manner. 

In this position Charlie was able to obtain a great 
deal of information about mining and stocks, an^ 
saw a great deal of life under different phases. 
Among his guests were some who had grown rich 
in a single week through successful speculation, and 


THE CAREEK OF THE STOLEN BOY, CHARLIE. 149 

others holding stocks, which had cost them thou- 
sands of dollars, but which now paid no dividend, 
were glad to barter them for the means to return 
to their friends in the East. . 

One poor fellow, who had left Charlie’s house 
with full pockets and a light heart, returned at 
night asking to be trusted for his board until he 
could earn the means of paying it. He had met 
with sharpers, while waiting for the cars, who had 
found means to fleece him of his hard-earned gains. 

In a short time, our hero had accumulated suffl- 
cient wealth to enable him to spend the rest of his 
life in comparative ease, and finding a favorable 
opportunity to sell his interest in the hotel, he did 
so, and with his wife returned to San Francisco. 

He had invested his surplus funds with the most 
reliable bankers in Virginia City, and with the 
money obtained from the sale of the hotel business 
he built a handsome residence in San Francisco, 
where he and Minnie expected to spend long years 
in happiness. 

This beautiful home was richly furnished. The 
library contained a full collection of books and 


150 THE CAREER OF THE STOLEN BOY, CHARLIE. 

engravings, and upon the walls might he seen fine 
paintings by the best modern artists — charming 
views from the Yosemite valley, marine views 
from the Atlantic, and one sweet little basket of 
fiowers, whose half-open buds seemed to fill the 
room with fragrance. Minnie’s room was a perfect 
bower of elegance and comfort ; from the deep bay 
window, with its fine lace curtains lined with red 
damask, the hanging-pot with trailing vines, and 
the silver cage in which her pet canary sang its 
sweetest songs, to the tables on which lay the 
many curiosities which she had gathered during 
the year which had been spent in the mining 
districts. 

Adjoining this room, and connected with it by 
folding doors, was the spacious parlor, which was 
furnished with elegant taste. In one corner stood 
a large piano, upon which the husband often played 
while Minnie mingled her voice with his in the pop- 
ular songs of the day; and here they gathered 
around them a large circle of admiring friends, 
for Charlie soon became quite a leader in the musi- 
cal circles of the city. 


THE CAREER OF THE STOLEN BOY, CHARLIE. 151 

One year of nearly perfect happiness had passed 
away since they entered their beautiful home. 
Then came the desire for change and variety which 
comes to all who have led busy lives and after- 
wards found time for rest and ease. 

A party of their friends proposed a visit to the 
most noticeable curiosities of the Golden State, and 
Charlie, wishing to visit with his wife some of those 
scenes which he had looked upon in his boyhood, 
joined them. His mother still lived in the little 
cottage where he had first made a home for her, 
and at his request she closed her quiet home and 
took charge of his more pretentious dwelling. 
They spent more than six months wandering from 
one scene of beauty to another. Yisiting the won- 
derful geysers by a stage ride, amid beautiful moun- 
tain scenery ; here the ground literally boiled and 
bubbled under foot. There were devil’s inkstands, 
caldrons, teakettles and whistles enough to satisfy 
any one in a short space of time. Then, by a stage, 
drawn by six handsome horses, they ascended the 
long mountain roads, stopping to rest at a hotel 
upon the summit, where they witnessed the most 


152 THE CAREEE OF THE STOLEN BOY, CHARLIE. 

glorious sunset and sunrise scenes, and saw the 
great valleys, and tlie bay spread out before 
them. 

They wandered through the Petrified Forest, 
visited the mud baths at Paso Eobbs, and spent 
days and weeks at some of the most famous water- 
ing places in the State. 

After crossing a succession of low hills covered 
with oaks our party ascended Mt. Diablo, where 
they remained all night and listened to the Indian 
legend which tells us that the country west of the 
Sierra Nevada Mountains was once covered with 
water, and the top of this mountain was then a 
little island. At this period, says the legend, the 
devil was there imprisoned by the waters for a 
long time, and therefore great prosperity and quiet 
resulted to mankind, which caused his name to be 
given to the mountain. 

Seeking the Yosemite Yalley they visited the 
Bridal Yail Falls, Cathedral Eocks and Three 
Brothers, pausing to rest at the various hotels and 
ranches where travelers were entertained. 

Minnie enjoyed these travels, and was never 


THE CAREER OF THE STOLEN BOY, CHARLIE. 153 

tired of listening to the falling water or gazing at 
the high towering clilfs. 

They lingered in the valley to visit the South 
Dome, the Clouds’ Eest and the foot of the Upper 
Yosemite, taking in the gradually growing wonders 
of the place. To Minnie, who had lived almost 
wholly in the city, the life at the ranche possessed 
almost as much interest as the beautiful scenes 
through which they were passing ; the waving fields 
of grain, the orchards loaded with fruit, and the 
many vineyards where grape raising was brought to 
the highest perfection. They examined Bower’s 
Cave, which they found to be an immense and pic- 
turesque crack or sink in the solid limestone of the 
mountain top, into which one might descend to an 
irregular bottom, about a hundred feet square, and 
in a corner of which is a small and beautiful lake. 
They then passed on to the groves of mammoth 
trees, where they saw one, the prostrate trunk of 
which was hollow for three hundred feet and 
large enough to admit two horsemen abreast, with 
an opening in its side large enough for one to pass 
out at a time. There were trees standing that 


154 : THE CAREER OF THE STOLEN BOY, CHARLIE. 

were said to be from two hundred and fifty to three 
hundred feet high. 

They Visited the Natural Bridges which Charlie 
had passed in his journey to the mining camp by 
the river. They found the place much improved, 
and a cabin at the entrance ready for the weary 
traveler to eat his luncheon and rest, while an 
entertaining old gentleman told them how he came 
to live here, all about the bridges and the forma- 
tions, which he had watched, etc., and furnished 
torches with which to explore the spot. 

Minnie and Charlie listened with awe and won- 
derment while the old man pointed out rocks on 
which he had watched the crystallizing substance 
forming for twenty years, and in this long time 
only a thin coating had been obtained, and Charlie 
found himself attempting to make a computation 
of how long these bridges might have been forming, 
from the substance formed each year, but he 
stopped appalled, for his calculations led him back 
over three million years. The old man told of a 
time when he had mined under these bridges and 
killed deer in these parts. 


THE CAREER OF THE STOLEN BOY, CHARLIE. 155 ' 

After feasting their eyes on these scenes as long 
as they wished they departed to visit other scenes,, 
ending their travels at the beautiful Lake Tahoe, 
whose placid clear surface reflected the snow-capped 
summits of the surrounding mountains. Speckled 
trout gliding through the water were visible, and 
the pebbles on the slanting bottom near the shore- 
could be plainly seen at the depth of one hundred 
and fifty feet. 

Leaving this beautiful scene they were descend- 
ing the steep mountain road in a stage coach when 
an accident occurred which came near proving 
fatal to some of the party on the spot, and did 
cause the death of others not long after. When 
near the foot of the mountain, just as they had 
reached a sharp turn in the road, the driver, who 
had been drinking, carelessly allowed his reins ta 
drop from his hand, and they becoming entangled 
with the horses feet caused them to stumble, 
and the stage was overturned. All the passengers 
were badly bruised, and one man had his arm 
broken. 

Fortunately the stage itself was not much injured,. 


156 THE CAREER OF THE STOLEN BOY, CHARLIE. 

and after a short delay the travelers were able to 
proceed on their journey. Half an hour later they 
reached the railroad station, where the man whose 
arm was broken found a surgeon to attend his 
wounded limb. 

Charlie and his wife hurried forward with all 
possible speed towards San Francisco, for although 
Minnie made no complaint, it was evident that she 
was suffering from the effects of the accident. 

The third day after their arrival at their own 
home, Minnie gave birth to a little blue-eyed daugh- 
ter; but ere the sun had set, both the mother and 
child were sleeping the silent sleep of death, and in 
the grand parlor, where his treasures lay so white and 
still, the bereaved husband sat with bowed head, 
and heart full of anguish, questioning, “Why could 
not I have been taken also? ” 

In this hour of sorrow he felt that the world had 
nothing left for him. It mattered not that the 
summer scene was bright with beauty, that the 
birds in the branches of the maples sang their 
sweetest songs, that his note on his banker would 
be honored for a large amount, or that his mining 


THE CAREER OF THE STOLEN BOY, CHARLIE. 157 

stocks were paying heavy dividends ; all, all were 
as nothing compared with the treasures he had 
just been deprived of. 

The funeral was over — the mother and child had 
both been laid in one grave, and the bereaved 
husband seemed buried in an apathy of grief; 
his old pursuits and pleasures were forgotten;, 
everything reminded him of his lost wife ; and 
the days and weeks were passed in silently pacing 
his chamber floor, or setting with his head buried 
in his hands, recalling every look and tone of the 
lost one. All the eflbrts of his mother and friends 
to arouse him from his grief were unavailing. 

Nearly three months had passed away in this 
manner when one morning Mr. Kexford startled 
them all by reading from the “Chronicle ” of the 
heavy failure of Floyd & Bullion, bankers, of Vir- 
ginia City. Nearly all of Charlie’s fortune was 
invested with this house, except what he had in 
mining stocks, and another reference to the. morn- 
ing paper told that these were decreasing in value 
rapidly. 

Our hero was becoming a poor man again ; but 


158 THE CAKEER OF THE STOLEN BOY, CHARLIE. 

our afflictions are sometimes blessings in disguise, 
and the loss of his wealth proved effectual in arous- 
ing Charlie from his lethargy of grief. 

The gold and silver mines of Arizona and Mex- 
ico were at this time attracting considerable atten- 
tion. Several attempts had been made to work 
the mines in Arizona previously, but the aggres- 
sions of the Apache Indians, and the lack of means 
of transportation, had caused most of the pioneers 
to become discouraged and abandon the enterprise ; 
but at this time the power of the Apaches had been 
broken by General Crook and the Indians confined 
to their reservations, while the means of transpor- 
tation were being constantly improved, so Charlie 
made up his mind to try in this new field to 
retrieve his shattered fortune. 

His mother felt unwilling to have her son leave 
her for this new and somewha t dangerous region ; 
but she knew that a life of activity and excitement 
would help to draw his mind from his great sorrow, 
so she did not try to dissuade him from his pur- 
pose. 

The splendid mansion where he had been so 


THE CAREER OF THE STOLEN BOY, CHARLIE. 159 

happy with his wife, and which now brought her 
so constantly before him, was sold to his step- 
father, and the few treasures that he wished to 
keep he left in his mother’s care. 




CHAPT.ee XL 


“ Light came from darkness, gladness from despair, 
As, when the sunlight fadeth from the earth, 

Star after star comes out upon the sky. 

And shining worlds, that had not been revealed 
In day’s full light, are then made manifest.” 



S OUE hero took liis place once more 
in the busy ranks of life, his sorrow 
assumed a more subdued tone, and 
he found a melancholy pleasure in 
imagining his lost wife ever near 
him, guiding his thoughts and prompting him to 
aspirations after a higher life. 

Some lives seem full of hardship and trial, but 
each bitter lesson, if used aright, has its purpose 
in forming our character or stimulating us to higher 
achievements. 

At the end of three weeks Charlie’s preparations 
were all made, and he left the city by the Southern 


THE CAEEER OF THE STOLEN BOY, CHARLIE. 161 

Pacific route and crossed the Sandy Desert of Cali- 
fornia, where he saw multitudes of “ desert palm,” 
a green tree or plant growing from six to twenty- 
five feet high, with leaves green and thick, which 
are used for making paper. This tree is said to 
bear a seed similar to the fruit of the banana. 
There were many other species of trees and millions 
of cactus plants in tree and bush height, while for 
miles and miles it was sand, sand, sometimes 
drifted up in heaps, that looked like snow-banks 
glistening in the sun. 

He reached Yuma after traveling over Y50 miles 
by rail, and was not sorry to be obliged to wait two 
days for ^the steamer 1^ which he was to continue 
his journey up through the gran^ canons of the 
Colorado. 

At the hotel at which he stopped he became 
acquainted with a gentleman from the States, who 
was, like himself, seeking the mining regions, and 
the two soon became firm friends. Passing up the 
Colorado they were interested in the landscape on 
both sides of the river, and spent a great deal of 
their time in examining, through the captain’s 


162 THE CAKEER OF THE STOLEN BOY, CHARLIE. 

field glasses, the curious cactus plants along the 
shore. 

One large species, called the Suarra, was from 
twentj-five to fifty feet high, full of sharp, green 
thorns, and looked like a log set up endways in 
the ground. Some of these had a few branches 
extending from their ugly stalks, but they were 
nearly all single shafts. 

The ‘‘Petayas,” which were in bloom, had flow- 
ers of the most brilliant pink and magenta tints, 
and the captain told them that this species bears a 
very palatable fruit, which is pear-shaped, of a 
pink color, and considered a great delicacy by both 
the Indians and whites. Then there was the nigger- 
head, or water cactus, clinging to the side of the 
rocks, and resembling what the ladies in the East- 
ern States raise in their flower-pots and call Turk’s 
Head, only much larger. These, they were told, 
contained from four to five quarts of watery fluid, 
which is often very acceptable to the thirsty trav- 
eler when no other water can be had. 

The settlements along the river were mostly of 
Indians. They were very industrious, and cut and 


THE CAREER OF THE STOLEN BOY, CHARLIE. 163 

sold wood to the steamer. The kind-hearted captain 
had taught them to use the axe, and bought their 
wood, taking ten cords at a time, at two dollars per 
cord. They also cultivated small farms, and their 
wheat, planted in hills, showed large heads and 
stalks, while in some places squashes and melons 
were large and plenty. The flora and fauna of this 
far-otf country was a study in itself, and Charlie 
counted ten diflerent varieties of cactus, every one 
covered with sharp, green thorns. 

On reaching the height of steamboat navigation 
our hero and his friend struck out across the coun- 
try on foot, the mining region which they were 
looking for being forty miles distant, and there 
was no public conveyance, the mails being carried 
to the interior on mule-back. 

The Indians had so long held the prospector in 
a state of fear, and so many unfortunate individ- 
uals had lost their lives, that the very name of 
Apache had become a synonym of terror and 
cruelty, and our travelers received a great many 
hints that they were about to start on a very danger- 
ous journey; but they were well armed, and Charlie 


164 THE CAREEE OF THE STOLEN BOY, CHARLIE. 

at least felt no fear, for he had all his life been 
accustomed to danger and privation. 

They were not molested during their journey, 
and found considerable pleasure in examining the 
^^Auchoyas^^'^ which were two distinct species of 
cactus common to the country, and in listening to 
the stories about the “Road-Runner,” a bird 
about the size of the partridge, of a bluish-gray 
color with speckled wings, which were told them 
at the small adobe house where they stopped to 
obtain refreshment and rest. 

It was said that these birds were determined and 
aggressive enemies of the rattlesnake, and that 
they would search diligently for the snake, and, 
when found, commence their attacks by flying or 
hopping around it until the enemy was rendered 
dizzy by their circling motions ; then, by an instinct 
purely their own, they pounce down, striking the 
snake directly on the top of the head with their 
beak, killing him instantly. They also have 
another very novel plan, which is to collect the 
broken branches of the auchoya and lay them 
quietly around a sleeping snake in piles, and when 


THE CAREEE OF THE STOLEN BOY, CHAELIE. 165 

their enemy is fully surrounded they drop one of 
these needle-pointed thorn stems on their vic- 
tim’s head, rousing him from his slumbers with a 
terrible squirm, and by this device entangling him 
in a nest of the sharpest thorns. Hovering around 
their helpless victim they watch his struggles, and 
if the thorns do not finish him, a blow on the head 
from their long sharp bills completes the work. 
After the snake is killed the bird eats a portion of 
it and then strolls off at a fast walk to find some 
other pastime. 

The country lying between the Colorado Eiver 
and the Peacock Mountains is crossed by different 
ranges, and some of these are divided by broad 
valleys. The mineral-bearing mountains are the 
second range from the river, and are a branch from 
the Cordillers. Here our travelers found a small 
village in a very rough state of civilization. It 
contained a post-oflice, and one store, kept by a 
Jew, who retailed a few of the necessaries of life 
at enormous prices, and plenty, of whisky. The 
residents were half-breeds, Indians, Chinese and a 
few Americans. But it furnished a stopping-place 


166 THE CAREER OF THE STOLEN BOY, CHARLIE. 

at which our travelers could obtain coarse food and 
shelter at the rate of ten dollars per week, while 
they took a view of the country and found a place 
to locate themselves. 

Charlie wrote often to his mother, and she felt 
pleased to read the cheery tone of his letters, for it 
told her that he had in a measure forgot his absorb- 
ing grief in the new scenes by which he was sur- 
rounded. 

Having been acquainted with mining from his 
boyhood, he found no trouble in securing some 
very rich mines, but their distance from the lines 
of transportation made the cost of working them 
very heavy, and he missed the refinements of civil- 
ization to which he had for some time been accus- 
tomed, while the constant diet of bacon, beans and 
coffee, without any other vegetable or fruit, seemed 
almost like starvation to one who had enjoyed the 
many luxuries to be obtained in San Francisco. 

The mines which Charlie and his friend had 
located were situated about eight miles beyond the 
village in which they found an abiding place, and 
a fine spring furnished them with water for all 


THE CAREER OF THE STOLEN BOY, CHARLIE. 167 

needful purposes. The two men soon decided 
that it was useless to undertake to work the mines 
without machinery of their own, and they at last 
determined that Mr. Smithson (this was his friend’s 
name) should go East and try to raise a company 
of capitalists to work this grand area of mineral 
wealth. 

During the absence of Mr. Smithson, Charlie 
spent his time prospecting and laying plans for 
the future. He had removed to another town or 
village in order to be nearer the mines. This place 
he found had once been a thriving village, but 
owing to the high prices of provisions and the 
hardships of frontier life it was now almost deserted, 
but it still contained a post-office and a few very 
fine American families. In one corner there was a 
burial-place which contained fifteen graves, many 
of whom had died violent deaths from causes pro- 
duced by the common practice of drinking whisky. 
Charlie soon became quite a favorite among the 
better class of people in the village, and quiltings, 
surprise parties^ dinners and musical entertain- 
ments filled up the long winter evenings and helped 


168 THE CAREEE OF THE STOLEN BOY, CHARLIE. 

to make the time pass pleasantly while waiting for 
his partner’s return. 

In a few months Mr. Smithson returned, having 
been very successful in forming a company to work 
the mines, and bringing with him a large quantity 
of provisions, which helped to make their life 
more endurable. 

Active preparations were now commenced ; the 
site of a new city or town was laid out and a com- 
pany of miners set to work to get out the mineral 
ready to be turned into bullion by the twenty stamp 
mill, which was expected to arrive in course of a 
few months. 

A stone house was soon in process of construc- 
tion to accommodate Charlie and his partner, with 
such of their company as they would have to find 
homes for. 

**-5f*4f* * * 

Situated in a canon among the high mountains, 
near which Charlie’s company had located their new 
city, was a small collection of adobe houses styled 
a town, and this contained the post-office at which 
Charlie was wont to receive* his letters. Among 


THE CAREER OF THE STOLEN BOY, CHARLIE. 169 

the residents of this village was a man whom we 
will call Leechvein. This man was a fugitive from 
justice, and possessed a very sullen and morose 
disposition. He was both disliked and feared by 
the better class of the neighborhood, but he man- 
aged to draw around him the thieves and gamblers 
from quite a distance, and these “roughs” often 
helped him to do considerable mischief in return 
for the bad whisky with which he paid them. 

In the same village lived Henry Palmback, whose 
only son had fallen a victim to Leechvein’s wiles, 
and had been killed in a drunken fight many years 
before Charlie came to the neighborhood. This 
man had conceived a great liking for our hero, and 
he was noted for being a warm friend or bitter 
enemy. 

One day, just as the slanting rays of the setting 
sun were reflected on the sloping sides of the rocky 
hills which surrounded the little town, Charlie 
reached the post-ofiice, keenly anxious for letters 
from his mother and John. He had not been able 

to leave his work at an earlier hour, and he waited 

* 

until it was quite dark, but no mail appeared ; and 


170 THE CAREER OF THE STOLEN BOY, CHARLIE. 

very much disappointed he was walking homeward 
a brisk pace when just as he had arrived in 
front of Leechvein’s dwelling the door opened and 
a stream of light penetrated the darkness while a 
voice exclaimed in oily tones : 

“Stop a moment, Mr. Burton! Come in and 
take a drink ; it will give you courage to travel this 
lonely mountain path.” 

“ E’o, I thank you. I do not drink unless I need 
it, and then only water.” 

“Humph! so you feel above us miners, don’t 
you ? May be you will be compelled to do as I say 
about it!” advancing towards our hero with a 
scowling visage and a volley of oaths. 

Charlie did not remain to hear any more, but 
kept on his way with hasty footsteps, for he did 
not wish to be drawn into a drunken row. 

Just at this moment a voice sounded in the dark- 
ness — “Wait up a bit, Charlie.” He halted, for 
he at once recognized the voice of his friend Palm- 
back. 

“What’s the row down to old Leeches?” he 
inquired ; whereupon Charlie’ told him the story of 


THE CAREER OF THE STOLEN BOY, CHARLIE. 171 

his encounter with the proprietor of the whisky 
den. 

♦ 

“He is after you, my boy, and you had bet' 
ter not travel this path alone. I have been out 
looking for my horses in the ravine, and so am late 
myself; but there is no end to the mischief Leech- 
vein and his ‘ Peons ’ (slaves) manage to accomplish 
after dark, and then it is all laid to the Indians.” 

They had reached Palmback’s house and he 
had invited our hero to remain with him all night, 
which he did, and found him to be a most agree- 
able host. 

In the morning Charlie spoke of returning to 
the post-office to see if the mail had arrived, and 
Palmback offered to accompany him, saying that 
he had business that way. 

They reached the post-office, where Charlie found 
his long-delayed letters, and as they were return- 
ing Leechvein came out and followed them, shaking 
his fists and calling Charlie vile names. Palmback 
stepped to the rear and dealt the villain a stunning 
blow, which felled him to the ground, where they 
left him to refiect, as Palmback termed it. 


172 THE CAREER OF THE STOLEN BOY, CHARLIE. 

The next day a fountain or spring, at which sev- 
eral neighboring families drew their water, was 
stopped up and claimed by Leechvein as his prop- 
erty. He said he should only permit his friends to 
draw water there. 

Palmback was obliged to use this fountain, and 
he immediately tore down all the obstructions and 
obtained the water iust as he had done before. To 
the surprise of all his enemy made no attempt to 
stop him, but Palmback felt sure he was studying 
up some new mischief, and he caused a close watch 
to be kept upon his enemy’s movements. 

An Indian whom he had in his employ soon 
informed him that an impromptu breastworks had 
been thrown up in a path which he often traversed 
in going to and from some ‘‘pockets ” which he was 
working in the mountain. He said the work looked 
like Indians, and there were moccasin tracks around 
the spot, but he knew that Leechvein had been out 
prospecting and had worn moccasins. 

The next night would be moonlight, and Palm- 
back, who was of a venturesome disposition, 
resolved to try the nature of the mountain fort. 


THE CAKEEE OF THE STOLEN BOY, CHARLIE. 173 

He took particular pains to have it known in the 
village that he was going over the mountains to 
return a borrowed horse. Just at nightfall he 
passed through the village mounted on one horse 
and leading another. Just before reaching the 
supposed ambuscade he arranged a straw effigy of 
himself, upon which he placed his own hat and 
coat, and this figure he securely tied to his well- 
broke horse, which he started at a slow walk past 
the fort, following himself at a safe distance. 

The straw man sat erect and rode straight ahead. 
Bang, bang, went a double-barreled shot-gun, the 
bullets striking the effigy in the back and cutting 
the cords which held it in the saddle, while the 
startled horse sprang ahead, shaking the supposed 
corpse from its back, and with a snort of fear strik- 
ing out for his home. Then from his concealment 
sprang the would-be murderer to gloat over his 
fallen foe, but at this moment, bang went three 
shots from the revolver of the straw man’s spirit, 
and Leechvein was past doing any more injury. 

Palmback straightened out his body and folded 
his hands across his breast, then he mounted his 


174 THE CAREER OF THE STOLEN BOY, CHARLIE. 

remaining horse, which had been hitched in the 
ravine, and rode homeward, leaving his straw 
<effigy to he seen by the first investigator. 

The next day the missing whisky dealer could 
not be found, and Palmback notified the authorities 
that he had been fired upon from the cliff, and that 
he had shot the person who fired upon him. They 
repaired to the spot and there found Leech vein’s 
body stiff and cold. 

Palmback was acquitted on the plea of self- 
defense, and most of the neighbors were glad to be 
rid of one who had gained his living by preying 
upon others. 



4^ 



CHAPTEE XIL 


“Wait thou for Time, but to thy heart take Faith, 

Soft beacon-hght upon a stormy sea : 

A mantle for the pure in heart, to pass 
Through a dim world, untouched by living death, 

A cheerful watcher through the spirit’s night. 

Soothing the grief from which she may not flee — 

A herald of glad news — a seraph bright. 

Pointing to sheltering havens yet to be.” 

—Miss Lucy Hooper. 

FEW weeks after the tragedy in 
the village, which had seemed to 
grow out of Charlie’s refusal to 
drink, but which was really the end 
of years of vengeful feeling treas- 
ured in the heart of Palmback toward one who 
had been the means • of causing the death of his 
only son, Charlie received the news that his step- 
father had failed in business, and lost everything 
except the handsome residence where Charlie had 
lived so happily one short year; and this letter 
was soon followed by another, which told that the 




176 the CAEEER of the STOLEH boy, CHARLIE. 

old man had sunk under his misfortunes, the 
trouble having produced brain fever; and his 
mother was again a widow. 

He immediately wrote to her, that when he 
could make a comfortable home for her in this 
new region he would come and bring her to it, 
and that meanwhile he would supply her with suffi- 
cient means to keep her comfortable. He had 
now an object to spur him on besides his mere 
personal interests. He was determined to fulfill 
the promise he had made his mother — That her 
last days should be her best days.” 

The engrossing duties of his business soon 
drove away all sadness from his mind, and he 
became the life of the new circle of friends which 
he found himself amongst, while the brilliant pros- 
pects before him filled his heart with bright hopea 
for the future. 

The Indians were quite plenty in the neighbor- 
hood, and they would often come around and beg 
for something to eat, for they are always hungry, 
and consider the (white men) are sent 

on purpose to feed them. For a good dinner they 


THE CAKEEE OF THE STOLEN BOY, CHARLIE. 177 

will gather wood, cut it, carry water, and run on 
errands. Begging is one of their long-established 
customs. They do not steal, if they think they are 
liable to be found out. In this virtue they resemble 
their white brethren. By the laws of their tribe, 
stealing is punished by death. 

One of the villagers stole a buifalo-robe that an 
Indian had hid in a cave — cashed, he called it. On 
discovering the offender he immediately raised his 
rifle to shoot him, but was prevented and taken 
before the court. He testifled that his people 
always killed a man that stole ; and he could not 
be pacifled until he was promised that the bad 
man should be banished. 

They are very anxious to convince the Hickoes 
that they do not lie ; and as a general thing they 
keep their promises. 

In the new store-house were gathered Mr. 
Smithson and* our hero, with four men who were 
employed at the mines, and an Indian whom Char- 
lie had taken into his employment. This Indian 
he found very useful as an assistant in the kitchen, 
for he was for many months his own housekeeper. 


178 THE CAREER OF THE STOLEN BOY, CHARLIE. 

and he also served him as a guide in the journeys 
through the country, which his business often 
caused him to make, sometimes on foot and some- 
times in the four-mule team which his company 
had sent for his use. 

This Indian was well versed in the legends and 
manners of the country, and often made their 
lonely rides or walks interesting by the tales of 
the adventures and sufferings of the early pioneers, 
and the habits and legends of his own tribe, which 
he told in short sentences and broken English 
During the forty miles ride between the river 
shore and the new city the country was very dry 
and parched, and the tall mountains, which had 
stood in the burning sun for ages, presented a 
dark and forbidding aspect, calling forth tales of 
men who, in prospecting in this barren region, had 
been unable to find water, and had gone mad, and 
died in three days from thirst. * 

“But,” the Indian added, “Great Spirit good. 
Tell his own children where to find water.” 

Then he pointed out the paths or trails which 
led to the natural tanks or reservoirs, which have 


THE CAEEER OF THE STOLEN BOY, CHARLIE. 179 

been formed in the solid rock by the wear of 
streams of water running into it. 

Here the all- wise Creator has caused these nat- 
ural cisterns to be formed and filled by the heavy 
rains, and they hold a sufficient quantity to supply 
the place of springs and streams when no rain 
falls. 

The Indians are familiar with these tanks, and 
they utilize the localities as hunting-grounds for 
deer, quails and other animals which frequent 
them to quench their thirst. 

This tribe — the Mohaves — have a legend that 
the Hickoes were formerly a part of the same 
great tribe to which their forefathers belonged ; but 
for disobeying the commands of the great chief 
who ruled them, they were banished beyond the 
sea, from which they have since been permitted 
to return to feed and care for their copper-colored 
brethren. 

They do not seem to be overburdened with self- 
esteem; but are servants, and as such are quite 
willing to remain. 

In their prospecting tours they often came upon 


180 THE CAREER OF THE STOLEN BOY, CHARLIE. 

Aztec ruins, which the Mohave said belonged to 
a race who were neither Hickoes or Mexicans, but 
Indians with white hair, who came originally from 
the ‘‘ spirit land.” 

Among these ruins were found pieces of colored 
pottery, still retaining a gloss and perfection of 
polish that attested the superiority of the manufac- 
turers over the natives of the present day; and 
the broken ruins of dwellings, three, four, and even 
five stories high, well-built and planned with arch- 
itectural skill, still remain to tell the story of a 
superior people. 

In the partly worked mines, stone hammers, 
picks and rudely constructed mining tools were 
found, which the Indian claimed were left by the 
white-haired or spirit Indians of former days. 

The wonders of a strange land are full of 
interest to the new-comer, and the awe-inspiring 
grandeur of the mountain scenery, when looked 
upon for the first time, is delightful to behold ; but 
to the miner, who has constantly such scenes 
before him, they lose their interest; his mind 
becomes absorbed with the brilliant hopes leading 


THE CAREER OF THE STOLEN BOY, CHARLIE. 181 

him on, and the landscape, which once seemed so 
beautiful, becomes tame and unattractive ; night 
finds him weary, and after a supper of beans 
and bacon he soon forgets his surroundings and 
permits sleep to lead him into the land of dreams. 

Every strange object met with was of special 
interest to Charlie and Mr. Smithson, and often 
formed the subject of conversation when these two 
men were not engaged with the business which 
brought them to this distant region. 

The other four men found more pleasure in 
discussing the particular kind of rocks on which 
they were at work, and how far this or that par- 
ticular vein of gold or silver was supposed to 
extend ; and they sometimes greeted their em- 
ployers with, “ Struck it rich, to-day ; ” and then 
would follow accounts of the rich vein of Horn 
silver which had been found, and samples of the 
ore would be produced to attest the truth of the 
statements. These samples were afterwards for- 
warded to the company in the East, and the assay 
satisfied them that their agents had not misrep- 
resented the property. 


182 THE CAREER OF THE STOLEN BOY, CHARLIE. 

Sometimes the miners spent their evenings 
in growling at the lack of good company, or the 
plentitude of rattlesnakes and centipedes; but 
none of them received any injury from these 
troublesome reptiles. Charlie spent all his leisure 
in writing to his mother and John Burton ; and 
every letter was rich in descriptions of the new 
country, which was an almost unknown region to 
his correspondents ; and in return he received 
news from the States and the Pacific Coast. 

He had formed a warm friendship with one of 
the families at the first town at which he had 
tarried, and with three families at the old town or 
village nearest to them ; and when the stone-house 
was finished he invited these friends to meet him 
at what he called a tea-party. 

This meal, which was planned, cooked and 
served by our hero alone, we will describe. The 
party of ten sat down at three and left the table at 
half-past four. The first course consisted of, chicken 
fricassee, roast beef (a la mode), with squash, 
potatoes and pickles, coffee, tea, hot buns, bread, 
butter, and honey. The second course, of fruit 


THE CAREER OF THE STOLEN BOY, CHARLIE. 183 

cake, jelly cake, caraway cookies, cheese, canned 
blackberries, peaches, and lemonade made from 
canned lemon sugar. Third course, berry pie, 
fresh apples, pears, walnuts, and lemonade. His 
neighbors loaned him dishes; and the ladies of the 
party praised each course, and asked for receipts 
for making the fruit and jelly cake. 

The young ladies helped to clear away the table, 
and wash the dishes ; and the whole company had 
a merry time. 

Quartz mining is usually an uncertain undertaking 
and is sometimes attended with heavy losses and vex- 
atious disappointments. The miner, in looking for 
a quartz vein in some places where the ledges ap- 
pear above ground, digs a place or sinks a hole beside 
the ledge of rock, and examines the soil around it 
and in it. Tests it sometimes with a pan and water, 
or by crushing a little of the rock in an iron mortar 
and washing it in a pan to see if gold will settle. 

All quartz veins, of any richness, have to be tun- 
neled into, or shafts sunk, to get below the surface ; 
this requires slow and costly labor, drilling, blast- 
ing, and hoisting the rocks out of the mines. The 


184 THE CAEEER OP THE STOLEN BOY, CHARLIE. 

seam or ledge of gold is sometimes very narrow, 
and large quantities of rock which does not carry 
gold has to be displaced before that which does 
can be reached. Much labor and money also has 
been wasted in tunneling mines that produced com- 
paratively nothing. 

When a mine is found that will pay from fifty to 
eighty dollars per ton of milling ore or rock, then 
mills or arrasters are erected to work it. Some 
mills have been built at the spot where quartz has 
been found, and after a short time abandoned, 
because the vein had run out and no more mineral 
could be found. The safest way is to erect arras- 
ters that are cheap, and by this plan test a mine 
fully before building a mill. Nearly all the early 
mining in Arizona was done in this manner ; for the 
cost of transportation rendered it impossible for 
any but wealthy companies to import an expensive 
mill to the spot. 

All quartz mills are run by steam or water, and 
the rock to be crushed is shoveled into the battery 
a little at a time, and this battery, or stamps as 
they are generally called, is composed of heavy 


THE CAKEER OF THE STOLEN BOY, CHARLIE. 185 

round bars of iron, twenty feet long and two and a 
half to three inches in diameter, with solid, heavy 
shoes or dies at the bottom, making the weight of 
each stamp about eight hundred pounds. A ten 
stamp mill has ten of these bars arranged side by 
side, about one foot apart; a twenty stamp mill has 
twenty, and so on. These heavy stamps are raised 
by cams, two on a shaft, and as the stamps set 
perpendicularly, confined to pass up and down — 
the shaft runs horizontally, and each cam raises the 
stamp and slips oif, letting the stamp fall of its 
own weight some eighteen inches. The cams are 
placed about half way between the bottom and the 
top of the stamps, and are quite close to the 
upright bar. A device for the cam to bear against 
is bolted to the stamp rod, and this is the method 
of raising. The sides of the compartments are so 
arranged as to keep the rock rolling under the 
heavy iron shoes at the bottom of the stamps, and 
the rock, which is powdered almost as fine as flour, 
passes out by the force of the stamps through a 
screen. The stamps fall quite fast, and will each 
crush a ton per day. 


186 THE CAREER OF THE STOLEN BOY, CHARLIE. 

This dust or powder passes into large iron tub- 
shaped vessels, two and a half feet deep, called 
amalgamating pans or settlers ; these pans are 
of different sizes, but generally four and a half 
feet in diameter. Water is mixed with the dust or 
powder, and quicksilver is put in the pans or tubs, 
while stirring machinery, attached to these fans, 
keep the dust in motion so as to collect all the 
gold and quicksilver in the bottom of the pans; 
and the slums, which is called trailings, is allowed 
to run off. 

The quicksilver is called amalgam, because it 
holds all the gold and looks like quicksilver, just 
the same 4 this is now taken out by devices to 
hold it, and poured into a heavy, stout canvas 
funnel-shaped bag ; then the straining commences, 
which is separating the gold from the quicksilver, 
by squeezing the quicksilver all out and saving it 
to use again ; the gold is left in the bag. 

Ketorting the balance of the quicksilver that 
remains is the next process, and, when acid is not 
used to bring the gold to its yellow color, is quite 
intricate ; this is done by confining the mass in 


THE CAREER OF THE STOLEN BOY, CHARLIE. 18T 

tight iron moulds or retorts, and putting them inta 
a very hot charcoal fire, when the rest of the 
quicksilver passes ofi* like steam and condenses 
again for use. 

Mining alone, and separate from communities, 
was somewhat hazardous in this region, hut the 
risk was sometimes taken, as the murdered bodies, 
of two miners attested, which were found alone in 
the mountains where they had been working a 
pocket in the side of a ledge. 

Sometimes a party of three or four would club 
together for protection and help, and all work 
upon the same claim ; but even these would some- 
times all lose their lives. 

A case of this kind came to Charlie’s knowl- 
edge, which was as follows : A party of four men 
had clubbed together and opened a shaft in a mine 
about thirteen miles from the new city. Three of 
the men were at work in the shaft, which was sixty 
feet in depth, and one was at the windlass hoisting 
their rifies were at the top of the shaft. Suddenly 
the man at the windlass was surprised by a dozen 
Indians and instantly shot. The painted savages. 


188 THE CAKEER OF THE STOLEN BOY, CHARLIE. 


then rushed up and rolled down rocks upon the 
helpless victims in the shaft, killing two and 
breaking the arm of the third; supposing them 
all dead, the savages plundered their hut and left. 
Several hours after the injured miner succeeded in 
reaching the top of the shaft and hurried away 
towards the nearest town, but he had only gone 
three miles when he was shot dead by an ambush 
of the savage band. 

Such were the perils of mining in Arizona when 
undertaken by small companies in remote regions. 



% 


IV, 



CHAPTEE XIII. 


“ Nothing BO small that God has made 
But has its destined end, 

All in their turn his glory serve, 

All to his glory tend. 

“ And thus the humblest of us all, 

God’s instruments may prove, 

Tc bless and shed o’er fellow-men, 

The bounty of his love.” 

TOOK nearly a year and a half to 
locate the mines, form the com- 
pany, and get the proper machinery 
transported to this distant locality^ 
but Charlie worked ‘with untiring,, 
zeal, waiting patiently to reap the harvest, which 
always follows patient and concentrated effort. 
The time came at last when he stood again in the 
broad sunshine of prosperity. The early horrors 
of life among the mines, when it was a common 
thing for one man to shoot another upon the slight- 
est provocation, had passed away before the march 



190 THE CAKEER OF THE STOLEN BOY, CHARLIE. 

of civilization ; and the. only stain which still lin- 
gei'ed in the new city, was the many whisky-shops 
which flourished. But these were fast becoming 
unpopular ; for the Good Templars were the lead- 
ing men of the city; and lectures, readings, and 
•concerts formed the chief amusements. 

Alas ! that any could be found who would per- 
mit themselves to become slaves to a demon, who 
sooner or later will destroy them. The victim, 
glorying in his own strength of mind, dallies with 
the first glass, the second, and the third, until the 
dreadful appetite is formed, and the strength to 
resist gone. Then, maddened by the poison, he 
becomes a murderer. Sometimes with the hasty 
blow or shot — oftener by the slow torture, poured 
day after day into the sufiering heart of a wife, a 
mother, a sister, or child. 

Silently the years slipped by — each day and 
hour our hero was being fitted for the duties that 
were to come. As an employer, he won the earn- 
est efibrts of his men ; for he was always resolute 
and active, and a most genial companion in social 
intercourse. The new city, of which he helped to 


THE CAREER OF THE STOLEN BOY, CHARLIE. 191 

lay the foundation, felt the influence of his exam- 
ple and leadership ; and many reflnements of social 
life found their way to this interior locality years 
in advance of the older towns near the river. 

As the resources of the country became more 
widely known and understood, this neighborhood 
was found to contain vast flelds of coal and forests 
of timber, waiting to be called into use by the 
needs of the future. And there were mountains 
of salt, clear as crystal, from which cubes of this 
saline substance were often obtained that were as 
transparent as glass ; while in many places rock 
salt of excellent quality was abundant. 

Charlie now found time to examine the country 
more leisurely; and a little, lively, black-eyed 
lady was often the companion of his journeys ; for 
he had won, for his wife, the postmaster’s daughter, 
of the little adobe town among the mountains. 
They took canoe-rides through the magniflcent 
canons of the upper Colorado, where the stream 
seemed to have cut its bed deeper in the rocky 
formation, until walls three thousand feet in height 
now stood on both sides of the river. Among the 


192 THE CAREER OF THE STOLEN BOY, CHARLIE. 

mines they found strata of sandstone, in which were 
found pieces of petrified wood, lizards and other 
substances ; and these strata contained silver, 
assaying from three to five hundred dollars per 
ton, furnishing a riddle for scientists to solve. 

They often took long rides across the country, 
pausing to wonder at the remains of peach-orchards 
which they found growing wild in watered dis- 
tricts, showing that they had been raised by former 
inhabitants, ruins of whose dwellings still re- 
mained, but nothing to tell who they were or 
whence they came. In the mountains they came 
upon deserted mines, in which shafts had been 
excavated, and the tools, which were rudely formed 
from pieces of stone, had been left behind. This 
seemed to prove that mining was among the 
earliest industries of the world. 

At the Mohave villages they were always wel- 
comed, and Mrs. Alice Burton caressed the Indian 
babies, and tasted the fruit of the Tunies (another 
species of cactus), while her husband entertained 
the Indian chief with pictures and descriptions of 
the large shi’ps he had seen in the bay at San 


THE CAREER OF THE STOLEN BOY, CHARLIE. 193 

Francisco; and they ate with their copper-colored 
friends, bread made from the Mezqnite bean, which 
grows wild, in a screw-shaped, dry, twisted pod, 
and is pounded up by the natives, and made into 
bread. There is also another wild species, the 
pods of which resemble our garden bush-bean ; and 
the natives cook them very much as we do, and 
tliey are very palatable ; but these grow on trees, 
sometimes thirty feet in height. 

Sometimes Alice took long walks alone, or in 
company with her lady friends ; for, like her hus- 
band, she was an earnest student of Nature, and 
she liked to watch the kangaroo rats sporting 
among the thorny cactus. These* curious animals 
were about the size of a barn rat, and had large 
eyes, a broad forehead, and short body and ears, 
with a tuft of hair on the end of the tail, similar to 
the lion. Some of fhem became so tame, that they 
would stand on their hind legs and eat from her 
hand ; and Charlie told her they were the next 
link to man and the monkey in the Darwinian 
pedigree. She often saw large lizards basking in 
the sunshine, but these would always run with 


194 THE CAEEEE OF THE STOLEN BOY, CHAELIE. 

lightning-like swiftness at her approach. Wher- 
ever she wandered, the limitless extent of flower- 
ing cactus met her view, for Arizona is a pointed 
country, if nothing else ; but rough and rugged as 
this country seems, those who dwell in its salu- 
brious climate. And health, and often wealth. 

The architecture seems to conform to the sur- 
rounding scenery, and nearly all the dwellings are 
of mud-brick, with thick walls, which are quite 
comfortable ; but once in a while a frame house is 
seen, with green blinds and vine-wreathed piazza ; 
and one of these we will invite the reader to enter. 

It is both large and handsome, and stands upon 
its rocky foundation, near the spring which fur- 
nishes the water by which is run the twenty stamp 
mill for the Mohave Gold and Silver Mining Com- 
pany. The large bay-window, from which is seen 
the first glimpse of the sun as it rises from behind 
the mountains, opens into the cosy sitting-room, 
with its comfortable lounges and bright carpet, 
where Charlie’s mother,, in her soft black dress, 
relieved only by the collar and cuffs of white linen 
and the white apron trimmed with dainty lace, sits 


THE OAEEER of the STOLEN BOY, CHARLIE. 195 

in her cushioned rocker, knitting a tiny sock of 
soft wool, intended for the fat dimpled foot of the 
black-eyed, brown-haired baby, who is crowing in 
the black-walnut crib in the corner. 

This rosy-cheeked cherub is Willie Burton ; his 
mother calls him “ Birdie,” and we find her at this 
moment watering and pruning her roses and gera- 
niums, which are in full bloom, and which entirely 
fill one window of the south-room, where we will 
find her sewing-machine, and 'the cabinet organ 
upon which Charlie still gratifies his taste for 
music. The soil for her flower-pots, as well as that 
of the tubs which sustained the ivy which is trained 
over the piazza, has been brought from the forest 
beyond the mountains ; and the flowers and vines 
form a bright contrast to the rugged surroundings 
of their mountain home. 

Charlie’s study and library adjoins this room, 
and here he has gathered a choice collection of 
instructive and entertaining books, and a few of 
the paintings which had adorned his former home. 

Down deep shafts, through long, dark tunnels 
the ores are daily being brought to light and 


196 THE CAREER OF THE STOLEN BOY, CHARLIE. 

yielded up to tlie crushing blows of the mill. The 
clatter and jingle of the stamps pounding out the 
quartz can be heard from the house, and it is not 
unpleasant to its inmates. Life seems full of ani- 
mation *as thb machinery turns the pulverized 
bullion through its many revolutions, until the bars 
gf silver and gold become tangible objects to greet 
the eye, and promise plenty for the future of old age. 

Here in the sweet rest of a quiet home Charlie’s 
mother will tell you that her son has redeemed his 
promise, for her last days bid fair to be her 
happiest. 

If my foster-brother had been permitted to grow 
up in his early home, he might have had a happier 
life ; but he would not have been so well fitted for 
a life of usefulness. 

Human nature is elastic, and usually moulds 
itself to the circumstances by which it is sur- 
rounded. From the lonely hours of waiting, in 
which his boyhood was passed, came his patient 
spirit, prepared to struggle with adversity — from' 
the hardships of his early life, the strong arm and 
vigorous frame. 


THE CAREER OF THE STOLEN BOY, CHARLIE. 197 

The proverb says, ‘‘A rolling stone gathers no 
moss ; ” but far better a life of useful activity than 
one spent in simply accumulating and never distri- 
buting. If we were all old mossy stones, the great 
West would never have been settled. 






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